List of serial killers by number of victims

Updated: 5/20/2026, 8:04:32 PM Wikipedia source

A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more people, in two or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons. There are gaps of time between the killings, which may range from a few days to months, or many years. This list shows all known serial killers from the 20th century to present day by number of victims, then possible victims, then date. For those from previous centuries, see List of serial killers before 1900. In many cases, the exact number of victims assigned to a serial killer is not known, and even if that person is convicted of some, there can be the possibility that they killed many more. Organization and ranking of serial killings is made difficult by the complex nature of serial killers and incomplete knowledge of the full extent of many killers' crimes. To address this, multiple categories have been provided in order to more accurately describe the nature of certain serial murders. This is not a reflection of an individual's overall rank, which may or may not vary depending on personal opinion concerning the nature and circumstances of their crimes. The fourth column in the table states the number of victims definitely assigned to that particular serial killer, and thus the table is in order of that figure. The fifth column states the number of possible victims the killer could have murdered. Some of these crimes are unsolved, but are included because they are the work of a serial killer, despite nobody being caught. This list does not include mass murderers, spree killers, war criminals, members of democidal governments, or major political figures, such as Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, Hideki Tojo, Suharto, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, or Pol Pot.

Tables

· Serial killers with the highest known victim count

Luis Garavito

Name

Luis Garavito

Country

Colombia Ecuador Venezuela

Years active

1992–1999

Proven victims

193

Possible victims

194–300+

Notes

Child-murderer, torture-killer, and rapist known as "La Bestia" ("The Beast"). Garavito confessed to killing 140 boys between six and sixteen years old, from October 1992 to April 1999 in Colombia and neighboring countries. He is suspected of murdering over 300 victims, mostly street children. Garavito was originally sentenced to 1,853 years in pri

Mariam Soulakiotis

Name

Mariam Soulakiotis

Country

Greece

Years active

1939–1951

Proven victims

177

Possible victims

500+

Notes

Known as "Mother Rasputin"; abbess believed to have murdered wealthy women and children who came into her abbey. The true number of her victims is a matter of debate, but she was found guilty of 177 murders—150 through negligence (fraudulently claiming to offer free tuberculosis treatment when the 'treatment' only consisted of abiding in her high a

Pedro López

Name

Pedro López

Country

Colombia Peru Ecuador

Years active

1969–1980

Proven victims

110

Possible victims

300+

Notes

Child-murderer and rapist, known as "The Monster of the Andes". López targeted young girls, between the ages of eight and twelve. Arrested in 1980 and convicted in 1983 of killing three young girls, but claimed to have killed hundreds. Despite being believed to be one of the most prolific serial killers of the twentieth century, he was released in

Javed Iqbal

Name

Javed Iqbal

Country

Pakistan

Years active

1998–1999

Proven victims

100

Possible victims

100

Notes

Child-murderer and rapist, known as "Kukri", Iqbal confessed to raping and murdering 100 boys between the ages of six and sixteen years. He strangled the victims and covered up his crimes by dissolving the bodies in acid. He was arrested in December 1999 after sending a letter to a newspaper, and was set to be executed in the manner described by th

Mikhail Popkov

Name

Mikhail Popkov

Country

Russia

Years active

1992–2010

Proven victims

Possible victims

86+

Notes

Serial rapist-killer nicknamed "The Werewolf", who was active for two decades in Angarsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok. After being convicted of 22 murders in 2015, he confessed to an additional 59 murders, of which he was convicted of 56 in 2018. In July 2020, Popkov confessed to more killings, bringing the total number of admitted victims to 83. He wa

Daniel Camargo Barbosa

Name

Daniel Camargo Barbosa

Country

Colombia Ecuador Brazil (alleged)

Years active

1974–1986

Proven victims

Possible victims

180

Notes

Child and woman murderer, believed to have possibly raped and killed over 150 victims, primarily targeting female children, as they were more likely to be virgins. Confessed to killing 72 victims. He strangled young girls in Colombia and was arrested, but he escaped from prison, and started killing in Ecuador. He was rearrested in 1986, and was all

Pedro Rodrigues Filho

Name

Pedro Rodrigues Filho

Country

Brazil

Years active

1967–2003

Proven victims

Possible victims

100+

Notes

Rodrigues Filho claimed to have killed over 100 victims, 47 of them inmates. He killed his first two victims at the age of 14. He was first arrested in 1973; he was convicted and sentenced to 128 years, but the maximum one can serve in Brazil is 30 years. He was released in 2018. He was murdered by two men in 2023.

Kampatimar Shankariya

Name

Kampatimar Shankariya

Country

India

Years active

1977–1978

Proven victims

Possible victims

70+

Notes

Shankariya was an Indian serial killer who used a hammer to kill over 70 men and women between 1978 and 1979. He was hanged in 1979; his last words were, "I have murdered in vain. Nobody should become like me."

Hoshang Amini

Name

Hoshang Amini

Country

Iran

Years active

1954–1962

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Ghost of the Qanat Wells". Murdered 67 people, mostly young boys, in the city of Varamin from 1954 to 1962, sometimes aided by accomplices. He earned his nickname by decapitating his victims post-mortem and then dumping their bodies into wells.

Yang Xinhai

Name

Yang Xinhai

Country

China

Years active

2000–2003

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Monster Killer". Yang would enter victims' homes at night and kill using axes, meat cleavers, hammers, and shovels. He was executed by gunshot in 2004.

Abul Djabar

Name

Abul Djabar

Country

Afghanistan

Years active

1970 and earlier

Proven victims

Possible victims

300+

Notes

Killed 65 men and boys by strangling them with turbans while raping them. Suspected of over 300 murders. Sentenced to death and hanged on 21 October 1970.

Samuel Little

Name

Samuel Little

Country

United States

Years active

1970–2005

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Little was convicted of killing three women, but later investigations linked 31 other murders to him. He claimed he killed as many as 93 victims total, three above his initial confession of 90; the FBI later confirmed a total of 60 murders linked to Little. The investigations into his crimes are ongoing. Sentenced to life imprisonment without the p

William Unek

Name

William Unek

Country

Belgian Congo Tanganyika

Years active

1954–1957

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

William murdered 22 people with a machete before fleeing the territory. Three years later, William, armed with rifle and axe, murdered 36 more people in the village of Malampaka before being fatally shot by police during a manhunt.

Mohammed Bijeh

Name

Mohammed Bijeh

Country

Iran

Years active

2002–2004

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Bijeh raped and killed at least 54 male children and teenagers. On 27 November 2004, he was sentenced to be executed. Bijeh said that if he was not arrested, he would kill 100 children. He was executed after being lashed in front of a crowd in 2005.

Andrei Chikatilo

Name

Andrei Chikatilo

Country

Soviet Union

Years active

1978–1990

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Butcher of Rostov", "The Red Ripper" or "The Rostov Ripper". Chikatilo was convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. One man was previously convicted and executed for his first murder. Chikatilo was executed by gunshot in 1994.

Anatoly Onoprienko

Name

Anatoly Onoprienko

Country

Soviet Union Ukraine

Years active

1989–1996

Proven victims

Possible victims

52+

Notes

Known as "The Beast of Ukraine", "The Terminator", and "Citizen O". Onoprienko was convicted of the murders of nine people in 1989, and 43 people in 1995–1996. He travelled throughout Europe illegally from 1990 to 1995; whether he killed during this time is unknown. He was sentenced to death, and was later commuted to imprisonment for life. He died

Florisvaldo de Oliveira

Name

Florisvaldo de Oliveira

Country

Brazil

Years active

1982–1983

Proven victims

Possible victims

50+

Notes

Known as "Cabo Bruno"; de Oliveira was a former police officer and vigilante who murdered criminals in the outskirts of São Paulo. He was murdered by unknown assailants in 2012.

Gary Ridgway

Name

Gary Ridgway

Country

United States

Years active

1982–1998

Proven victims

Possible victims

71–90+

Notes

Ridgway was a truck painter who confessed to killing 71 women. He was also known as the "Green River Killer". He almost exclusively targeted sex workers from Seattle. Ridgway was suspected of killing over 90 victims; he confessed to 71, and was convicted of 49. He was sentenced to life without parole.

Alexander Pichushkin

Name

Alexander Pichushkin

Country

Russia

Years active

1992–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Pichushkin was also known as the "Chessboard Killer". He was convicted of murdering 49 victims, and suspected of killing 60. He claimed to have murdered 62 people, because he did not know that two of his victims had survived; he stated that his goal was becoming Russia's most prolific serial killer. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Wang Qiang

Name

Wang Qiang

Country

China

Years active

1995–2003

Proven victims

Possible victims

60+

Notes

Wang killed 45 and raped 10 from 1995 to 2003. He was executed by firing squad in 2005.

Ahmad Suradji

Name

Ahmad Suradji

Country

Indonesia

Years active

1986–1997

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Suradji was convicted of strangling at least 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers. He was executed by firing squad in 2008.

Raman Raghav

Name

Raman Raghav

Country

India

Years active

1965–1968

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

In the late 1960s, Raghav went on a violent rampage in Mumbai, India. He bludgeoned 41 people to death inside their shelters while they slept. He died of kidney failure in 1995.

Moses Sithole

Name

Moses Sithole

Country

South Africa

Years active

1994–1995

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as South Africa's Ted Bundy. Sithole preyed on unemployed women, posing as a businessman and luring his victims with the prospects of a job, before leading them to an isolated place, where he raped, tortured, and murdered them. He was sentenced to 2,410 years' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 930 years.

Serhiy Tkach

Name

Serhiy Tkach

Country

Soviet Union Ukraine

Years active

1984–2005

Proven victims

Possible victims

100+

Notes

A former Ukrainian police criminal investigator, Tkach suffocated girls aged between eight and eighteen, and performed sexual acts on their bodies after they were dead. He claimed to have killed 100. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and died from heart failure in 2018.

Gennady Mikhasevich

Name

Gennady Mikhasevich

Country

Soviet Union

Years active

1971–1985

Proven victims

Possible victims

43–55+

Notes

Mikhasevich killed women by strangling them. Besides killing, he also robbed his victims of money and valuable items (that he would sometimes give to his wife as a gift). He was executed by firing squad in 1987.

Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi

Name

Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi

Country

Morocco

Years active

1906 and earlier

Proven victims

Possible victims

36+

Notes

Known as "Marrakesh Arch-Killer"; Mesfewi drugged, mutilated and murdered women; he was executed by immurement (walling) in 1906.

Vera Renczi

Name

Vera Renczi

Country

Kingdom of Romania Yugoslavia Hungary (alleged)

Years active

1920–1930

Proven victims

Possible victims

~35

Notes

Romanian serial killer nicknamed "The Black Widow". Renczi was convicted of killing 35 men through arsenic poisoning, but confessed to only killing 32 victims. Renczi is one of the world's most prolific female serial killers. However, there is very little information about Renczi and her crimes, because personal information (criminal history, acade

Fernando Hernández Leyva

Name

Fernando Hernández Leyva

Country

Mexico

Years active

1982–1999

Proven victims

Possible victims

137

Notes

Hernández Leyva confessed to 100 murders and six kidnappings at the time of his arrest in 1999 (he had been arrested previously in 1982 and 1986, the second time for murder, but escaped from prison), but later retracted, and claimed that he had been beaten by the police and his family threatened in order to force him to confess. He was accused of a

Toregeldy Zharambaev

Name

Toregeldy Zharambaev

Country

Soviet Union Kazakhstan

Years active

1990–1992

Proven victims

Possible victims

50+

Notes

Tortured and murdered a minimum of 33 people around his hometown of Shymkent, without any set preference for his victims. He would often strike them from behind with a blunt object and then either bludgeon or stab them to death, after which he masturbated on the corpses or inserted objects into the male victims' anuses. Executed in 1993 by a single

John Wayne Gacy

Name

John Wayne Gacy

Country

United States

Years active

1972–1978

Proven victims

Possible victims

34–45+

Notes

Gacy is known to have murdered a minimum of 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978, 26 of whom he buried in the crawl space of his Chicago home. He was known as the "Killer Clown", because he often entertained children at social events dressed in a self-devised clown costume. Executed by lethal injection in 1994.

Ali Asghar Borujerdi

Name

Ali Asghar Borujerdi

Country

Ottoman Empire Iraq Iran

Years active

1907–1934

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "Asghar the Murderer". Borujerdi killed 33 young adults in Iraq and Iran. He was executed by hanging in 1934.

Vasili Komaroff

Name

Vasili Komaroff

Country

Soviet Union

Years active

1921–1923

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Wolf of Moscow"; Komaroff was a horse trader who killed 33 men. He was executed by firing squad in 1923.

Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour

Name

Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour

Country

Egypt

Years active

1999–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

32+

Notes

Mansour was a gang leader known as "al-Tourbini" ("The Express Train"). He had raped and tortured homeless children, mostly boys aged 10 to 14 years old, aboard the trains between Cairo, Alexandria, Qalyubia, and Beni Sueif. The victims were usually thrown off the moving train when they were dead or in agony; other times, they were thrown into the

Radik Tagirov

Name

Radik Tagirov

Country

Russia

Years active

2011–2012

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Volga Maniac". He murdered elderly women in several Russian regions.

Name	Country	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Notes
Luis Garavito	Colombia Ecuador Venezuela	1992–1999	193	194–300+	Child-murderer, torture-killer, and rapist known as "La Bestia" ("The Beast"). Garavito confessed to killing 140 boys between six and sixteen years old, from October 1992 to April 1999 in Colombia and neighboring countries. He is suspected of murdering over 300 victims, mostly street children. Garavito was originally sentenced to 1,853 years in pri
Mariam Soulakiotis	Greece	1939–1951	177	500+	Known as "Mother Rasputin"; abbess believed to have murdered wealthy women and children who came into her abbey. The true number of her victims is a matter of debate, but she was found guilty of 177 murders—150 through negligence (fraudulently claiming to offer free tuberculosis treatment when the 'treatment' only consisted of abiding in her high a
Pedro López	Colombia Peru Ecuador	1969–1980	110	300+	Child-murderer and rapist, known as "The Monster of the Andes". López targeted young girls, between the ages of eight and twelve. Arrested in 1980 and convicted in 1983 of killing three young girls, but claimed to have killed hundreds. Despite being believed to be one of the most prolific serial killers of the twentieth century, he was released in
Javed Iqbal	Pakistan	1998–1999	100	100	Child-murderer and rapist, known as "Kukri", Iqbal confessed to raping and murdering 100 boys between the ages of six and sixteen years. He strangled the victims and covered up his crimes by dissolving the bodies in acid. He was arrested in December 1999 after sending a letter to a newspaper, and was set to be executed in the manner described by th
Mikhail Popkov	Russia	1992–2010	83	86+	Serial rapist-killer nicknamed "The Werewolf", who was active for two decades in Angarsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok. After being convicted of 22 murders in 2015, he confessed to an additional 59 murders, of which he was convicted of 56 in 2018. In July 2020, Popkov confessed to more killings, bringing the total number of admitted victims to 83. He wa
Daniel Camargo Barbosa	Colombia Ecuador Brazil (alleged)	1974–1986	72	180	Child and woman murderer, believed to have possibly raped and killed over 150 victims, primarily targeting female children, as they were more likely to be virgins. Confessed to killing 72 victims. He strangled young girls in Colombia and was arrested, but he escaped from prison, and started killing in Ecuador. He was rearrested in 1986, and was all
Pedro Rodrigues Filho	Brazil	1967–2003	71	100+	Rodrigues Filho claimed to have killed over 100 victims, 47 of them inmates. He killed his first two victims at the age of 14. He was first arrested in 1973; he was convicted and sentenced to 128 years, but the maximum one can serve in Brazil is 30 years. He was released in 2018. He was murdered by two men in 2023.
Kampatimar Shankariya	India	1977–1978	70	70+	Shankariya was an Indian serial killer who used a hammer to kill over 70 men and women between 1978 and 1979. He was hanged in 1979; his last words were, "I have murdered in vain. Nobody should become like me."
Hoshang Amini	Iran	1954–1962	67	67	Known as the "Ghost of the Qanat Wells". Murdered 67 people, mostly young boys, in the city of Varamin from 1954 to 1962, sometimes aided by accomplices. He earned his nickname by decapitating his victims post-mortem and then dumping their bodies into wells.
Yang Xinhai	China	2000–2003	67	67	Known as the "Monster Killer". Yang would enter victims' homes at night and kill using axes, meat cleavers, hammers, and shovels. He was executed by gunshot in 2004.
Abul Djabar	Afghanistan	1970 and earlier	65	300+	Killed 65 men and boys by strangling them with turbans while raping them. Suspected of over 300 murders. Sentenced to death and hanged on 21 October 1970.
Samuel Little	United States	1970–2005	60	93	Little was convicted of killing three women, but later investigations linked 31 other murders to him. He claimed he killed as many as 93 victims total, three above his initial confession of 90; the FBI later confirmed a total of 60 murders linked to Little. The investigations into his crimes are ongoing. Sentenced to life imprisonment without the p
William Unek	Belgian Congo Tanganyika	1954–1957	58	58	William murdered 22 people with a machete before fleeing the territory. Three years later, William, armed with rifle and axe, murdered 36 more people in the village of Malampaka before being fatally shot by police during a manhunt.
Mohammed Bijeh	Iran	2002–2004	54	54	Bijeh raped and killed at least 54 male children and teenagers. On 27 November 2004, he was sentenced to be executed. Bijeh said that if he was not arrested, he would kill 100 children. He was executed after being lashed in front of a crowd in 2005.
Andrei Chikatilo	Soviet Union	1978–1990	53	56	Known as "The Butcher of Rostov", "The Red Ripper" or "The Rostov Ripper". Chikatilo was convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. One man was previously convicted and executed for his first murder. Chikatilo was executed by gunshot in 1994.
Anatoly Onoprienko	Soviet Union Ukraine	1989–1996	52	52+	Known as "The Beast of Ukraine", "The Terminator", and "Citizen O". Onoprienko was convicted of the murders of nine people in 1989, and 43 people in 1995–1996. He travelled throughout Europe illegally from 1990 to 1995; whether he killed during this time is unknown. He was sentenced to death, and was later commuted to imprisonment for life. He died
Florisvaldo de Oliveira	Brazil	1982–1983	50	50+	Known as "Cabo Bruno"; de Oliveira was a former police officer and vigilante who murdered criminals in the outskirts of São Paulo. He was murdered by unknown assailants in 2012.
Gary Ridgway	United States	1982–1998	49	71–90+	Ridgway was a truck painter who confessed to killing 71 women. He was also known as the "Green River Killer". He almost exclusively targeted sex workers from Seattle. Ridgway was suspected of killing over 90 victims; he confessed to 71, and was convicted of 49. He was sentenced to life without parole.
Alexander Pichushkin	Russia	1992–2006	49	60	Pichushkin was also known as the "Chessboard Killer". He was convicted of murdering 49 victims, and suspected of killing 60. He claimed to have murdered 62 people, because he did not know that two of his victims had survived; he stated that his goal was becoming Russia's most prolific serial killer. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Wang Qiang	China	1995–2003	45	60+	Wang killed 45 and raped 10 from 1995 to 2003. He was executed by firing squad in 2005.
Ahmad Suradji	Indonesia	1986–1997	42	42	Suradji was convicted of strangling at least 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers. He was executed by firing squad in 2008.
Raman Raghav	India	1965–1968	41	41	In the late 1960s, Raghav went on a violent rampage in Mumbai, India. He bludgeoned 41 people to death inside their shelters while they slept. He died of kidney failure in 1995.
Moses Sithole	South Africa	1994–1995	38	76	Known as South Africa's Ted Bundy. Sithole preyed on unemployed women, posing as a businessman and luring his victims with the prospects of a job, before leading them to an isolated place, where he raped, tortured, and murdered them. He was sentenced to 2,410 years' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 930 years.
Serhiy Tkach	Soviet Union Ukraine	1984–2005	37	100+	A former Ukrainian police criminal investigator, Tkach suffocated girls aged between eight and eighteen, and performed sexual acts on their bodies after they were dead. He claimed to have killed 100. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and died from heart failure in 2018.
Gennady Mikhasevich	Soviet Union	1971–1985	36	43–55+	Mikhasevich killed women by strangling them. Besides killing, he also robbed his victims of money and valuable items (that he would sometimes give to his wife as a gift). He was executed by firing squad in 1987.
Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi	Morocco	1906 and earlier	36	36+	Known as "Marrakesh Arch-Killer"; Mesfewi drugged, mutilated and murdered women; he was executed by immurement (walling) in 1906.
Vera Renczi	Kingdom of Romania Yugoslavia Hungary (alleged)	1920–1930	35	~35	Romanian serial killer nicknamed "The Black Widow". Renczi was convicted of killing 35 men through arsenic poisoning, but confessed to only killing 32 victims. Renczi is one of the world's most prolific female serial killers. However, there is very little information about Renczi and her crimes, because personal information (criminal history, acade
Fernando Hernández Leyva	Mexico	1982–1999	33	137	Hernández Leyva confessed to 100 murders and six kidnappings at the time of his arrest in 1999 (he had been arrested previously in 1982 and 1986, the second time for murder, but escaped from prison), but later retracted, and claimed that he had been beaten by the police and his family threatened in order to force him to confess. He was accused of a
Toregeldy Zharambaev	Soviet Union Kazakhstan	1990–1992	33	50+	Tortured and murdered a minimum of 33 people around his hometown of Shymkent, without any set preference for his victims. He would often strike them from behind with a blunt object and then either bludgeon or stab them to death, after which he masturbated on the corpses or inserted objects into the male victims' anuses. Executed in 1993 by a single
John Wayne Gacy	United States	1972–1978	33	34–45+	Gacy is known to have murdered a minimum of 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978, 26 of whom he buried in the crawl space of his Chicago home. He was known as the "Killer Clown", because he often entertained children at social events dressed in a self-devised clown costume. Executed by lethal injection in 1994.
Ali Asghar Borujerdi	Ottoman Empire Iraq Iran	1907–1934	33	33	Known as "Asghar the Murderer". Borujerdi killed 33 young adults in Iraq and Iran. He was executed by hanging in 1934.
Vasili Komaroff	Soviet Union	1921–1923	33	33	Known as "The Wolf of Moscow"; Komaroff was a horse trader who killed 33 men. He was executed by firing squad in 1923.
Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour	Egypt	1999–2006	32	32+	Mansour was a gang leader known as "al-Tourbini" ("The Express Train"). He had raped and tortured homeless children, mostly boys aged 10 to 14 years old, aboard the trains between Cairo, Alexandria, Qalyubia, and Beni Sueif. The victims were usually thrown off the moving train when they were dead or in agony; other times, they were thrown into the
Radik Tagirov	Russia	2011–2012	31	31	Known as the "Volga Maniac". He murdered elderly women in several Russian regions.

· Serial killers with 15 to 30 proven victims

Karl Denke

Name

Karl Denke

Country

Germany

Years active

1900–1924

Proven victims

Possible victims

42+

Notes

Killed and cannibalized poor travelers and homeless vagrants. Kept a ledger recording his murders with at least 31 names in it (including Vincenz Olivier, his only surviving victim), thus confirming at least 30 victims. But due to the massive amount of human remains found in his apartment, his kill count is suspected by many to exceed 42 victims. K

Francisco das Chagas Rodrigues de Brito

Name

Francisco das Chagas Rodrigues de Brito

Country

Brazil

Years active

1989–2003

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Serial killer of children, who also sexually abused and mutilated children in Maranhão and Pará; sentenced to 217 years' imprisonment.

Monster of the Mangones

Name

Monster of the Mangones

Country

Colombia

Years active

1963–1970s

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Unidentified serial killer(s) who kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered at least 30 boys in Cali, Colombia.

Milton Sipalo

Name

Milton Sipalo

Country

Zambia

Years active

1980

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Lusaka Strangler"; A soldier who raped and murdered women and girls in Lusaka. While awaiting trial, he jumped off of the roof of the police station where he was being interrogated, killing himself.

Luis Gregorio Ramírez Maestre

Name

Luis Gregorio Ramírez Maestre

Country

Colombia

Years active

2010–2012

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed motorists in various municipalities before his 2012 capture. Was sentenced to 34 years in prison.

David Thabo Simelane

Name

David Thabo Simelane

Country

Swaziland

Years active

2000–2001

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Sexually assaulted women he befriended in forests, stabbing or strangling them afterward; sentenced to death.

Zhang Jun

Name

Zhang Jun

Country

China

Years active

1993–2000

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Robbed 22 stores in several Chinese provinces, killing 28 people in the process. Executed in 2001.

Cedric Maake

Name

Cedric Maake

Country

South Africa

Years active

1996–1997

Proven victims

Possible victims

35+

Notes

Known as the "Wemmer Pan Killer" and "Hammer Killer". He killed his victims with different instruments such as guns, rocks, a knife, and a hammer. Authorities attributed the murders to two serial killers because of the inconsistent modus operandi. In some cases he killed his victims with a rock, in others he shot them, and in others he murdered tai

Carl Großmann

Name

Carl Großmann

Country

Germany

Years active

1918–1921

Proven victims

Possible victims

100+

Notes

Known as "The Berlin Butcher". Killed women and allegedly sold their flesh on the black market. Hanged himself in his cell after being sentenced to death.

Robert Pickton

Name

Robert Pickton

Country

Canada

Years active

1983–2002

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Pig Farmer Killer" or the "Butcher", he killed women mostly from the Vancouver Downtown Eastside and would feed the remains to the pigs on his farm. In 2007, he was initially convicted for the deaths of 6 women but was later found guilty of the deaths of 20 other women in 2010; however, he confessed to 49 killings to an undercover pol

Oesin Bestari

Name

Oesin Bestari

Country

Indonesia

Years active

1961–1964

Proven victims

Possible victims

25+

Notes

A goat leather trader, he killed merchants whom he met on the market. His execution on 14 September 1978 was the first civil execution in post-independence Indonesia.

Juan Corona

Name

Juan Corona

Country

United States

Years active

1971

Proven victims

Possible victims

25+

Notes

Corona was convicted of murdering ranch laborers and burying them in orchards. He was sentenced to 25 terms life imprisonment. Died from natural causes in 2019.

The Stoneman

Name

The Stoneman

Country

India

Years active

1985–1989

Proven victims

Possible victims

25+

Notes

12 homeless people were murdered in their sleep in Bombay between 1985 and 1987, and 13 in Calcutta in 1989—in all cases, by dropping a large rock over their head (an additional victim escaped, but could not identify the attacker). No one was ever charged with any of the murders.

Fritz Haarmann

Name

Fritz Haarmann

Country

Germany

Years active

1918–1924

Proven victims

Possible victims

27+

Notes

Also known as the Butcher of Hanover and the Vampire of Hanover, because of his preferred method of killing by biting through his victim's throat, sometimes while sodomizing them. He would then dump the bodies in the nearby river Leine. Believed to have been responsible for the murder of 27 boys and young men, he was convicted, found guilty of 24 m

Béla Kiss

Name

Béla Kiss

Country

Austria-Hungary

Years active

1912–1916

Proven victims

Possible victims

24+

Notes

Evaded arrest and conviction after the discovery of 24 bodies hidden in large metal drums on his property in 1916. At that time he was serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and deserted when the military was notified of the murders by civilian authorities. His final whereabouts and fate are unknown, as is his final victim count.

Majid Salek Mohammadi

Name

Majid Salek Mohammadi

Country

Iran

Years active

1981–1985

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed mainly women he considered unfaithful to their husbands, sometimes the children accompanying them too; killed himself before he could be sentenced.

Yvan Keller

Name

Yvan Keller

Country

France Germany (suspected) Switzerland (suspected)

Years active

1989–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

150

Notes

Known as the "Pillow Killer"; killed and robbed old women in France's Alsace region, but also confessed to up to 150 murders, including in Germany and Switzerland; killed himself before trial.

Ronald Dominique

Name

Ronald Dominique

Country

United States

Years active

1997–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

23+

Notes

Louisianian serial killer, known locally as the Bayou Strangler and murdered victims in the Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish, Iberville Parish and Jefferson Parish. Sentenced to eight life terms.

Juan Fernando Hermosa

Name

Juan Fernando Hermosa

Country

Ecuador

Years active

1991–1992

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "Niño del Terror"; youth gang leader who murdered mostly taxi drivers and homosexuals in Quito; murdered on his 20th birthday by unknown assailants.

Gerald Stano

Name

Gerald Stano

Country

United States

Years active

1969–1980

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Confessed to killing 41 women, mostly in Florida and New Jersey. He was only convicted in 22 cases, and is suspected in the deaths of up to 88 victims. Some people have suggested that Stano was a serial confessor.

Earle Nelson

Name

Earle Nelson

Country

United States Canada

Years active

1926–1927

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Necrophiliac who primarily targeted boarding house landladies on the US West Coast during 1926; he was also known as "Gorilla Killer" or "the Dark Strangler". Captured after two murders in a small (now ghost) town in southern Manitoba. Found guilty, hanged by Canadian authorities in January 1928.

Mikhail Novosyolov

Name

Mikhail Novosyolov

Country

Soviet Union Russia Tajikistan

Years active

1977–1995

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Necrophile Rebel"; killed his victims with blows from heavy objects, then had sexual intercourse with their corpses; sentenced to civil commitment.

Manuel Octavio Bermúdez

Name

Manuel Octavio Bermúdez

Country

Colombia

Years active

1999–2003

Proven victims

Possible victims

50+

Notes

Colombian child rapist and serial killer. Known as "El Monstruo de los Cañaduzales" (The Monster of the Cane Fields). He confessed to killing 21 children in remote areas of Colombia. Sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Patrick Kearney

Name

Patrick Kearney

Country

United States

Years active

1965–1977

Proven victims

Possible victims

43+

Notes

Would pick up young male hitch-hikers or young men from gay bars near Redondo Beach, California, and kill them. Sentenced to imprisonment for life.

William Bonin

Name

William Bonin

Country

United States

Years active

1979–1980

Proven victims

Possible victims

36+

Notes

Bonin and three accomplices are known to have murdered a minimum of 21 youths aged between 12 and 19 in and around Los Angeles. As the majority of his victims were discarded alongside various southern California freeways, Bonin became known as the Freeway Killer. Convicted of 14 of the freeway murders, he was executed by lethal injection in 1996.

Vasile Tcaciuc

Name

Vasile Tcaciuc

Country

Romania

Years active

1917–1935

Proven victims

Possible victims

26+

Notes

Romanian man who lured victims and then murdered them with an axe. He was arrested in 1935 after a dog found a dead body in his house. He confessed to having committed at least 26 murders. He was shot dead by a policeman while trying to escape from prison.

Yoo Young-chul

Name

Yoo Young-chul

Country

South Korea

Years active

2003–2004

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Used a hammer to murder mostly older victims, until his focus shifted to the decapitation and mutilation of escorts after being dumped by a girlfriend who worked in that profession. Was sentenced to death and is currently incarcerated.

Larry Eyler

Name

Larry Eyler

Country

United States

Years active

1982–1984

Proven victims

Possible victims

23+

Notes

Known as "The Interstate Killer"; sentenced to death for the 1984 murder and dismemberment of 15-year-old Daniel Bridges. He confessed to other homicides of young men and boys in five separate states. Died of AIDS complications in 1994.

Francisco Guerrero Pérez

Name

Francisco Guerrero Pérez

Country

Mexico

Years active

1880–1908

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "El Chalequero"; the first captured serial killer in Mexico, who killed sex workers in Mexico City; died in 1910 from cerebral thromboembolism and another, unspecified cause.

Ted Bundy

Name

Ted Bundy

Country

United States

Years active

1974–1978

Proven victims

Possible victims

35–100+

Notes

Bundy was an American serial killer known for his charisma and good looks. He officially confessed to 30 homicides, but had confessed to killing 35–36 women in the past, and some estimates run upwards of 100 or more. He was infamous for escaping from prison twice and murdering multiple victims in one day; sometimes abducting women from the same loc

Abdullah Shah

Name

Abdullah Shah

Country

Afghanistan

Years active

1990s

Proven victims

Possible victims

20+

Notes

Killed travelers on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad serving under Zardad Khan. Also killed his wife. Executed on 20 April 2004.

Mohan Kumar

Name

Mohan Kumar

Country

India

Years active

2005–2009

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Lured female victims with promises of marriage and gave them cyanide, claiming they were contraceptive pills, Sentenced to death in 2013.

Bulelani Mabhayi

Name

Bulelani Mabhayi

Country

South Africa

Years active

2007–2012

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Monster of Thuleni"; killed 20 women and children from 2007 to 2012. Sentenced to 25 life sentences on 3 September 2013.

Cape Town Prostitute Killer

Name

Cape Town Prostitute Killer

Country

South Africa

Years active

1992–1996

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Unidentified serial killer who, on rainy nights, picked up sex workers and domestic workers in his vehicle, strangled them in parking lots, and dumped their bodies in rural, preselected spots.

"El Psicópata"

Name

"El Psicópata"

Country

Costa Rica

Years active

1986–1996

Proven victims

Possible victims

19+

Notes

("The Psychopath") Unidentified serial killer who killed 19 people with an M3 submachine gun in three Costa Rican towns, always south of the Florencio del Castillo Highway.

Sergei Ryakhovsky

Name

Sergei Ryakhovsky

Country

Soviet Union Russia

Years active

1988–1993

Proven victims

Possible victims

19+

Notes

Known as the Balashikha Ripper, he was convicted for the murders of at least 19 victims. Died from tuberculosis in 2005.

Yevgeny Chuplinsky

Name

Yevgeny Chuplinsky

Country

Russia

Years active

1998–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

19+

Notes

Known as the "Novosibirsk Maniac"; killed sex workers in Novosibirsk; despite extensive police search and the capture of another serial killer, he was only arrested in 2016; sentenced to life imprisonment.

M. Jaishankar

Name

M. Jaishankar

Country

India

Years active

2008–2011

Proven victims

Possible victims

19+

Notes

Accused of killing at least 19 women. Charged with 13 murders, he escaped during a trial transport. Killed eight more people in two months before he was recaptured. Sentenced to 27 years. Killed himself by slashing his wrists with a shaving blade in prison on 27 February 2018.

Ansis Kaupēns

Name

Ansis Kaupēns

Country

Latvia

Years active

1920–1926

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Army deserter who committed 30 robberies and killed 19 people; one of the most infamous Latvian criminals; executed by hanging in 1927.

Vadim Ershov

Name

Vadim Ershov

Country

Russia

Years active

1992–1995

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Krasnoyarsk Beast"; committed 70 crimes around the Krasnoyarsk area, including 19 murders and eight attempted murders; sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment.

Velaphi Ndlangamandla

Name

Velaphi Ndlangamandla

Country

South Africa

Years active

1998

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Saloon Killer"; robber who murdered people around Mpumalanga in his crime spree; sentenced to 137 years' imprisonment.

Valery Kopytov

Name

Valery Kopytov

Country

Russia

Years active

2000–2004

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Barnaul Chikatilo"; homeless man who killed other homeless people in Altai Krai.

Randall Woodfield

Name

Randall Woodfield

Country

United States

Years active

1979–1981

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The I-5 Killer" and "The I-5 Bandit". Suspected of as many as 44 murders. Sentenced to imprisonment for life.

Yavuz Yapıcıoğlu

Name

Yavuz Yapıcıoğlu

Country

Turkey

Years active

1994–2002

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed in various cities of Turkey. 18 murders proven and accused of more than 40 by eyewitnesses and relatives. Was sentenced to 74 years in prison.

Paul John Knowles

Name

Paul John Knowles

Country

United States

Years active

1974

Proven victims

Possible victims

35+

Notes

Killed 18 people in various states in 1974. Claimed 35 murders. Known as the "Casanova Killer"; shot dead by FBI agents.

Thierry Paulin

Name

Thierry Paulin

Country

France

Years active

1984–1987

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The monster of Montmartre". Killed and robbed elderly women. Died of AIDS in 1989 in prison before trial.

Richard Nyauza

Name

Richard Nyauza

Country

South Africa

Years active

2002–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Quarry Murderer"; bludgeoned, beat, strangled, and stabbed 16 women and two unborn children to death and left their bodies in or around a quarry. Given 16 life sentences.

Umesh Reddy

Name

Umesh Reddy

Country

India

Years active

1996–2002

Proven victims

Possible victims

18+

Notes

Confessed to 18 rapes and murders. Sentenced to death. Sentence later commuted to 30 years to life imprisonment.

Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode

Name

Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode

Country

South Africa

Years active

1994–1995

Proven victims

Possible victims

18+

Notes

Known as "Donnybrook Serial Killer" murdered 18 people in Donnybrook, KwaZulu Natal from 1994 to 1995. Was given 140 years (5 life sentences).

Kotakethana murders

Name

Kotakethana murders

Country

Sri Lanka

Years active

2008–2015

Proven victims

Possible victims

18+

Notes

18 mysterious murders of women in the Rathnapura district of Sri Lanka. One middle age man suspect was arrested in 2015 and his DNA matched with six murders. Nine other cases remain unsolved.

Asande Baninzi

Name

Asande Baninzi

Country

South Africa

Years active

2001

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed 18 people in three months, including a family of four; given 19 life sentences and 189 years of imprisonment.

Vladimir Mirgorod

Name

Vladimir Mirgorod

Country

Russia

Years active

2002–2004

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Strangler"; raped and strangled women in Moscow, also killing the son of one of the victims; sentenced to life imprisonment.

Richard Cottingham

Name

Richard Cottingham

Country

United States

Years active

1967–1980

Proven victims

Possible victims

85–100

Notes

Killer operating in New York and New Jersey who often targeted sex workers and utilized mutilation as well as dismemberment in his killings. Known as the "Torso Killer", with 17 confirmed homicide victims including nine convictions and a further eight official confessions. He has made unsubstantiated claims of up to a hundred victims.

Huang Yong

Name

Huang Yong

Country

China

Years active

2001–2003

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Lured and murdered 17 teenage boys, although he is suspected of 25 murders between September 2001 and 2003. Executed by firing squad in 2003.

Pedro Pablo Nakada Ludeña

Name

Pedro Pablo Nakada Ludeña

Country

Peru

Years active

2005–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "El Apóstol de la Muerte" ("The Apostle of Death"). Convicted of 17 murders and claimed 25. Sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Darbara Singh

Name

Darbara Singh

Country

India

Years active

2004

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Sexually assaulted and then murdered children of non-Punjabi immigrants; died in 2018 from an illness while serving a life sentence.

Robert Hansen

Name

Robert Hansen

Country

United States

Years active

1971–1983

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Sex workers he kidnapped were released into the Alaskan wilderness for him to hunt down like animals. Based on discovered remains, police suspect him of six murders in addition to the 17 for which he was convicted. Sentenced to 461 years plus life. Died from unspecified health problems in 2014.

Sergei Dovzhenko

Name

Sergei Dovzhenko

Country

Ukraine

Years active

1992–2002

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed people because they were "mocking" him; sentenced to life imprisonment.

Donato Bilancia

Name

Donato Bilancia

Country

Italy

Years active

1997–1998

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Burglar who murdered 17 people, mainly sex workers, between 1997 and 1998, during a six-month period. Known as the "Prostitutes Killer" and the "Liguria Monster". Sentenced to imprisonment for life, he died due to COVID-19 in 2020.

Irina Gaidamachuk

Name

Irina Gaidamachuk

Country

Russia

Years active

2002–2010

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "Satan in a skirt". Killed 17 elderly women between 2002 and 2010. Sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Chen Fuzhao

Name

Chen Fuzhao

Country

China

Years active

2003

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Alleged Falun Gong fanatic who fatally poisoned 17 people in 2003.

Randy Steven Kraft

Name

Randy Steven Kraft

Country

United States

Years active

1971–1983

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Convicted of 16 counts of murder but left a cryptic "score card" referring to at least 65 victims. May have had an accomplice. Sentenced to death.

Juana Barraza

Name

Juana Barraza

Country

Mexico

Years active

Late 1990s–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Mexican female wrestler who bludgeoned or strangled elderly women to rob them. Sentenced to 759 years.

Michel Fourniret

Name

Michel Fourniret

Country

France Belgium

Years active

1987–2001

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the Ogre or Beast of Ardennes. He was caught after a failed kidnapping in 2003. Sentenced to life and died of respiratory problems while in prison in 2021.

Sipho Agmatir Thwala

Name

Sipho Agmatir Thwala

Country

South Africa

Years active

1996–1997

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Nicknamed the Phoenix Strangler after the area in which he committed his crimes; he raped and strangled 19 women; arrested, he was found guilty of 16 murders and sentenced to life.

Saeed Hanaei

Name

Saeed Hanaei

Country

Iran

Years active

2000–2001

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Confessed to luring 16 sex workers to his home and killing them in an attempt to "cleanse" the city of Mashhad. His actions were dubbed "The Spider Murders". Executed by hanging in 2002.

Maina Ramulu

Name

Maina Ramulu

Country

India

Years active

2003–2020

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Convicted of murdering 16 women between 2003 and 2013 during three separate murder sprees. He was released from prison in 2020, and allegedly murdered two more women.

Jeffrey Dahmer

Name

Jeffrey Dahmer

Country

United States

Years active

1978–1991

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

One of the most notorious serial killers from the United States, also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster. Dahmer was a serial killer and sex offender who killed and dismembered seventeen men and boys between 1978 and 1991. He was a necrophile who ate some of his victims and kept their body parts in his freezer. Was sentenced t

José Antonio Rodríguez Vega

Name

José Antonio Rodríguez Vega

Country

Spain

Years active

1987–1988

Proven victims

Possible victims

16+

Notes

Nicknamed El Mataviejas (The Old Lady Killer), he raped and killed at least 16 elderly women, aged from 61 to 93 years old, in and around Santander, Cantabria. He went unrecognized for over a year because he moved his victims into their beds after they were killed; no autopsies were made and the deaths were attributed to natural causes. He also too

Carroll Cole

Name

Carroll Cole

Country

United States

Years active

1948–1980

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed 16 people in California, Nevada, and Texas. Executed by lethal injection in 1985.

Elias Xitavhudzi

Name

Elias Xitavhudzi

Country

South Africa

Years active

1950s

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Nicknamed Panga man for his use of a machete (locally known as a "panga"). He stabbed and robbed his victims between 1953 and 1959; arrested, he was executed by hanging in 1960.

Charles Ray Hatcher

Name

Charles Ray Hatcher

Country

United States

Years active

1969–1982

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

A habitual criminal, confessed to the rape and murder of over 20 young and adolescent males. Escaped from prison several times and was declared a "manipulative institutionalized sociopath". Sentenced to life; killed himself by hanging himself in prison in 1984.

Yuri Ivanov

Name

Yuri Ivanov

Country

Soviet Union

Years active

1974–1987

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Ust-Kamenogorsk Maniac"; Kazakhstani rapist who killed girls and women who spoke negatively of men; executed 1987.

Robert Lee Yates

Name

Robert Lee Yates

Country

United States

Years active

1975–1998

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed sex workers in the "Skid Row" area of E. Sprague Avenue in Spokane, Washington. Sentenced to 408 years in prison and two death sentences.

Farid Baghlani

Name

Farid Baghlani

Country

Iran

Years active

2004–2008

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Cyclist killer"; murdered 15 women and 1 boy. Executed by hanging on 13 November 2010.

Jimmy Maketta

Name

Jimmy Maketta

Country

South Africa

Years active

2005

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Pleaded guilty to and convicted of 16 murders and 19 rapes committed over the nine-month period of April to December 2005.

Jack Mogale

Name

Jack Mogale

Country

South Africa

Years active

2008–2009

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Raped and strangled women in the Donnybrook area. Convicted of 16 murders and 19 rapes, nine kidnappings, robbery and assault.

Donald Henry Gaskins

Name

Donald Henry Gaskins

Country

United States

Years active

1953–1982

Proven victims

Possible victims

100+

Notes

Known as "The Meanest Man in America", Gaskins was convicted of nine murders committed in South Carolina between 1973 and 1975. He was suspected of 31 murders. Two victims had been murdered while Gaskins had been incarcerated—one while Gaskins had been on death row. Later claimed on death row that he had murdered between 100 and 110 victims. Execut

Ravinder Kumar

Name

Ravinder Kumar

Country

India

Years active

2008–2015

Proven victims

Possible victims

30+

Notes

Serial rapist who killed children of poor families.

Name	Country	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Notes
Karl Denke	Germany	1900–1924	30	42+	Killed and cannibalized poor travelers and homeless vagrants. Kept a ledger recording his murders with at least 31 names in it (including Vincenz Olivier, his only surviving victim), thus confirming at least 30 victims. But due to the massive amount of human remains found in his apartment, his kill count is suspected by many to exceed 42 victims. K
Francisco das Chagas Rodrigues de Brito	Brazil	1989–2003	30	42	Serial killer of children, who also sexually abused and mutilated children in Maranhão and Pará; sentenced to 217 years' imprisonment.
Monster of the Mangones	Colombia	1963–1970s	30	38	Unidentified serial killer(s) who kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered at least 30 boys in Cali, Colombia.
Milton Sipalo	Zambia	1980	30	31	Known as "The Lusaka Strangler"; A soldier who raped and murdered women and girls in Lusaka. While awaiting trial, he jumped off of the roof of the police station where he was being interrogated, killing himself.
Luis Gregorio Ramírez Maestre	Colombia	2010–2012	30	30	Killed motorists in various municipalities before his 2012 capture. Was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
David Thabo Simelane	Swaziland	2000–2001	28	45	Sexually assaulted women he befriended in forests, stabbing or strangling them afterward; sentenced to death.
Zhang Jun	China	1993–2000	28	28	Robbed 22 stores in several Chinese provinces, killing 28 people in the process. Executed in 2001.
Cedric Maake	South Africa	1996–1997	27	35+	Known as the "Wemmer Pan Killer" and "Hammer Killer". He killed his victims with different instruments such as guns, rocks, a knife, and a hammer. Authorities attributed the murders to two serial killers because of the inconsistent modus operandi. In some cases he killed his victims with a rock, in others he shot them, and in others he murdered tai
Carl Großmann	Germany	1918–1921	26	100+	Known as "The Berlin Butcher". Killed women and allegedly sold their flesh on the black market. Hanged himself in his cell after being sentenced to death.
Robert Pickton	Canada	1983–2002	26	49	Known as the "Pig Farmer Killer" or the "Butcher", he killed women mostly from the Vancouver Downtown Eastside and would feed the remains to the pigs on his farm. In 2007, he was initially convicted for the deaths of 6 women but was later found guilty of the deaths of 20 other women in 2010; however, he confessed to 49 killings to an undercover pol
Oesin Bestari	Indonesia	1961–1964	25	25+	A goat leather trader, he killed merchants whom he met on the market. His execution on 14 September 1978 was the first civil execution in post-independence Indonesia.
Juan Corona	United States	1971	25	25+	Corona was convicted of murdering ranch laborers and burying them in orchards. He was sentenced to 25 terms life imprisonment. Died from natural causes in 2019.
The Stoneman	India	1985–1989	25	25+	12 homeless people were murdered in their sleep in Bombay between 1985 and 1987, and 13 in Calcutta in 1989—in all cases, by dropping a large rock over their head (an additional victim escaped, but could not identify the attacker). No one was ever charged with any of the murders.
Fritz Haarmann	Germany	1918–1924	24	27+	Also known as the Butcher of Hanover and the Vampire of Hanover, because of his preferred method of killing by biting through his victim's throat, sometimes while sodomizing them. He would then dump the bodies in the nearby river Leine. Believed to have been responsible for the murder of 27 boys and young men, he was convicted, found guilty of 24 m
Béla Kiss	Austria-Hungary	1912–1916	24	24+	Evaded arrest and conviction after the discovery of 24 bodies hidden in large metal drums on his property in 1916. At that time he was serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and deserted when the military was notified of the murders by civilian authorities. His final whereabouts and fate are unknown, as is his final victim count.
Majid Salek Mohammadi	Iran	1981–1985	24	24	Killed mainly women he considered unfaithful to their husbands, sometimes the children accompanying them too; killed himself before he could be sentenced.
Yvan Keller	France Germany (suspected) Switzerland (suspected)	1989–2006	23	150	Known as the "Pillow Killer"; killed and robbed old women in France's Alsace region, but also confessed to up to 150 murders, including in Germany and Switzerland; killed himself before trial.
Ronald Dominique	United States	1997–2006	23	23+	Louisianian serial killer, known locally as the Bayou Strangler and murdered victims in the Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish, Iberville Parish and Jefferson Parish. Sentenced to eight life terms.
Juan Fernando Hermosa	Ecuador	1991–1992	23	23	Known as "Niño del Terror"; youth gang leader who murdered mostly taxi drivers and homosexuals in Quito; murdered on his 20th birthday by unknown assailants.
Gerald Stano	United States	1969–1980	22	88	Confessed to killing 41 women, mostly in Florida and New Jersey. He was only convicted in 22 cases, and is suspected in the deaths of up to 88 victims. Some people have suggested that Stano was a serial confessor.
Earle Nelson	United States Canada	1926–1927	22	25	Necrophiliac who primarily targeted boarding house landladies on the US West Coast during 1926; he was also known as "Gorilla Killer" or "the Dark Strangler". Captured after two murders in a small (now ghost) town in southern Manitoba. Found guilty, hanged by Canadian authorities in January 1928.
Mikhail Novosyolov	Soviet Union Russia Tajikistan	1977–1995	22	22	Known as the "Necrophile Rebel"; killed his victims with blows from heavy objects, then had sexual intercourse with their corpses; sentenced to civil commitment.
Manuel Octavio Bermúdez	Colombia	1999–2003	21	50+	Colombian child rapist and serial killer. Known as "El Monstruo de los Cañaduzales" (The Monster of the Cane Fields). He confessed to killing 21 children in remote areas of Colombia. Sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Patrick Kearney	United States	1965–1977	21	43+	Would pick up young male hitch-hikers or young men from gay bars near Redondo Beach, California, and kill them. Sentenced to imprisonment for life.
William Bonin	United States	1979–1980	21	36+	Bonin and three accomplices are known to have murdered a minimum of 21 youths aged between 12 and 19 in and around Los Angeles. As the majority of his victims were discarded alongside various southern California freeways, Bonin became known as the Freeway Killer. Convicted of 14 of the freeway murders, he was executed by lethal injection in 1996.
Vasile Tcaciuc	Romania	1917–1935	21	26+	Romanian man who lured victims and then murdered them with an axe. He was arrested in 1935 after a dog found a dead body in his house. He confessed to having committed at least 26 murders. He was shot dead by a policeman while trying to escape from prison.
Yoo Young-chul	South Korea	2003–2004	20	26	Used a hammer to murder mostly older victims, until his focus shifted to the decapitation and mutilation of escorts after being dumped by a girlfriend who worked in that profession. Was sentenced to death and is currently incarcerated.
Larry Eyler	United States	1982–1984	21	23+	Known as "The Interstate Killer"; sentenced to death for the 1984 murder and dismemberment of 15-year-old Daniel Bridges. He confessed to other homicides of young men and boys in five separate states. Died of AIDS complications in 1994.
Francisco Guerrero Pérez	Mexico	1880–1908	21	21	Known as "El Chalequero"; the first captured serial killer in Mexico, who killed sex workers in Mexico City; died in 1910 from cerebral thromboembolism and another, unspecified cause.
Ted Bundy	United States	1974–1978	20	35–100+	Bundy was an American serial killer known for his charisma and good looks. He officially confessed to 30 homicides, but had confessed to killing 35–36 women in the past, and some estimates run upwards of 100 or more. He was infamous for escaping from prison twice and murdering multiple victims in one day; sometimes abducting women from the same loc
Abdullah Shah	Afghanistan	1990s	20	20+	Killed travelers on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad serving under Zardad Khan. Also killed his wife. Executed on 20 April 2004.
Mohan Kumar	India	2005–2009	20	20	Lured female victims with promises of marriage and gave them cyanide, claiming they were contraceptive pills, Sentenced to death in 2013.
Bulelani Mabhayi	South Africa	2007–2012	20	20	Known as the "Monster of Thuleni"; killed 20 women and children from 2007 to 2012. Sentenced to 25 life sentences on 3 September 2013.
Cape Town Prostitute Killer	South Africa	1992–1996	19	20	Unidentified serial killer who, on rainy nights, picked up sex workers and domestic workers in his vehicle, strangled them in parking lots, and dumped their bodies in rural, preselected spots.
"El Psicópata"	Costa Rica	1986–1996	19	19+	("The Psychopath") Unidentified serial killer who killed 19 people with an M3 submachine gun in three Costa Rican towns, always south of the Florencio del Castillo Highway.
Sergei Ryakhovsky	Soviet Union Russia	1988–1993	19	19+	Known as the Balashikha Ripper, he was convicted for the murders of at least 19 victims. Died from tuberculosis in 2005.
Yevgeny Chuplinsky	Russia	1998–2006	19	19+	Known as the "Novosibirsk Maniac"; killed sex workers in Novosibirsk; despite extensive police search and the capture of another serial killer, he was only arrested in 2016; sentenced to life imprisonment.
M. Jaishankar	India	2008–2011	19	19+	Accused of killing at least 19 women. Charged with 13 murders, he escaped during a trial transport. Killed eight more people in two months before he was recaptured. Sentenced to 27 years. Killed himself by slashing his wrists with a shaving blade in prison on 27 February 2018.
Ansis Kaupēns	Latvia	1920–1926	19	19	Army deserter who committed 30 robberies and killed 19 people; one of the most infamous Latvian criminals; executed by hanging in 1927.
Vadim Ershov	Russia	1992–1995	19	19	Known as the "Krasnoyarsk Beast"; committed 70 crimes around the Krasnoyarsk area, including 19 murders and eight attempted murders; sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment.
Velaphi Ndlangamandla	South Africa	1998	19	19	Known as "The Saloon Killer"; robber who murdered people around Mpumalanga in his crime spree; sentenced to 137 years' imprisonment.
Valery Kopytov	Russia	2000–2004	19	19	Known as "The Barnaul Chikatilo"; homeless man who killed other homeless people in Altai Krai.
Randall Woodfield	United States	1979–1981	18	44	Known as "The I-5 Killer" and "The I-5 Bandit". Suspected of as many as 44 murders. Sentenced to imprisonment for life.
Yavuz Yapıcıoğlu	Turkey	1994–2002	18	40	Killed in various cities of Turkey. 18 murders proven and accused of more than 40 by eyewitnesses and relatives. Was sentenced to 74 years in prison.
Paul John Knowles	United States	1974	18	35+	Killed 18 people in various states in 1974. Claimed 35 murders. Known as the "Casanova Killer"; shot dead by FBI agents.
Thierry Paulin	France	1984–1987	18	21	Known as "The monster of Montmartre". Killed and robbed elderly women. Died of AIDS in 1989 in prison before trial.
Richard Nyauza	South Africa	2002–2006	18	19	Known as "The Quarry Murderer"; bludgeoned, beat, strangled, and stabbed 16 women and two unborn children to death and left their bodies in or around a quarry. Given 16 life sentences.
Umesh Reddy	India	1996–2002	18	18+	Confessed to 18 rapes and murders. Sentenced to death. Sentence later commuted to 30 years to life imprisonment.
Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode	South Africa	1994–1995	18	18+	Known as "Donnybrook Serial Killer" murdered 18 people in Donnybrook, KwaZulu Natal from 1994 to 1995. Was given 140 years (5 life sentences).

· Serial killers with 5 to 14 proven victims

Carl Eugene Watts

Name

Carl Eugene Watts

Country

United States

Years active

1974–1982

Proven victims

Possible victims

100+

Notes

Believed to have killed over 80 women in multiple states, in 1982 Watts accepted a plea bargain in Texas in which he would plead guilty to a lesser charge and be granted immunity from murder charges in exchange for providing information on his victims; as a result he confessed to 12 murders and was sentenced to 60 years in prison on the lesser char

Belle Gunness

Name

Belle Gunness

Country

United States

Years active

1884–1908

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Norwegian-born murder-for-profit killer who murdered her suitors and relatives in Indiana. High possibility of committing over 40 murders. May have faked her own death in the fire that destroyed her home in 1908; her children had died of strychnine poisoning before the fire, and the woman's body found next to them was decapitated and, reportedly, s

Philipp Tyurin

Name

Philipp Tyurin

Country

Soviet Union

Years active

1945–1946

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Leningrad Maniac" and the "Hellraiser"; murdered people for monetary reasons at his hut in Leningrad; executed 1947.

Zdzisław Marchwicki

Name

Zdzisław Marchwicki

Country

Poland

Years active

1964–1970

Proven victims

Possible victims

21+

Notes

Also known as Vampire of Zagłębie. Killed 14 women in 1964–1970 in Poland's region of Dąbrowa Basin. Zdzisław Marchwicki was most likely the man responsible for the killings; however, his guilt remains in dispute. Executed in 1977.

Julio Pérez Silva

Name

Julio Pérez Silva

Country

Chile

Years active

1998–2001

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as The Psychopath from Alto Hospicio; killed 14 women. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004.

Monster of Florence

Name

Monster of Florence

Country

Italy

Years active

1968–1985

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Unidentified killer who shot couples in lovers lanes and mutilated the women, taking their sexual organs and in the last two cases, also their left breast. 69-year-old farmer Pietro Pacciani was controversially convicted of 14 crimes in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison, but he was released following allegations that the scant evidence had been

Joachim Kroll

Name

Joachim Kroll

Country

West Germany

Years active

1955–1976

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Ruhr Cannibal" and "The Duisburg Man-Eater"; died from a heart attack in prison in 1991.

Arthur Shawcross

Name

Arthur Shawcross

Country

United States

Years active

1972–1989

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Committed arson and burglary, served two years of a five-year sentence. Within a year of his release, he raped and murdered two children in 1972. Under a plea bargain, he was sentenced to 25 years. Released after serving 14½ years, he began killing again a year later, targeting sex workers. Known as the "Genesee River Killer", "Genesee River Strang

Naceur Damergi

Name

Naceur Damergi

Country

Tunisia

Years active

1980–1988

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Raped and killed minors in the Nabeul region; executed by hanging in 1990.

Muthukutty Chandran

Name

Muthukutty Chandran

Country

India

Years active

1985–1986

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Committed 14 robbery-murders between 1985 and 1986 in Kerala, executed by hanging on 6 July 1991.

Marcelo Costa de Andrade

Name

Marcelo Costa de Andrade

Country

Brazil

Years active

1991

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as The Vampire of Niterói. Raped and killed 14 children in Rio de Janeiro and Niterói. Drank the blood of his victims. Found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Sergey Shipilov

Name

Sergey Shipilov

Country

Russia

Years active

1995–1999

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Velsk Chikatilo"; killed female hitchhikers in the town of Velsk, most of them while out on prison leave; sentenced to life imprisonment.

Dorángel Vargas

Name

Dorángel Vargas

Country

Venezuela

Years active

1997–1999

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Homeless cannibal known as "The People Eater" (El Comegente) and "The Hannibal Lecter of the Andes". Murdered a homeless man and was institutionalized. After escaping the institution, he went on to kill ten other men and was arrested. In 2016, he and several other inmates killed three others and Vargas fed their remains to them.

Hua Ruizhuo

Name

Hua Ruizhuo

Country

China

Years active

1998–2001

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Was responsible for the murders of 14 sex workers in Beijing's Chaoyang District.

Denis Pischikov

Name

Denis Pischikov

Country

Russia

Years active

2002–2003

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known at the "Shivering Creature"; robbed and killed elderly people around the Moscow Oblast and Vladimir Oblast; sentenced to life imprisonment.

Abdufatto Zamanov

Name

Abdufatto Zamanov

Country

Russia

Years active

2002–2004

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed people out of personal hostility; also raped two young girls; sentenced to life imprisonment.

Jeong Nam-gyu

Name

Jeong Nam-gyu

Country

South Korea

Years active

2004–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Kidnapped, raped and murdered people; killed himself.

Amir Qayyum

Name

Amir Qayyum

Country

Pakistan

Years active

2005

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The brick killer". Killed 14 homeless men with rocks or bricks when they were asleep. Sentenced to death in May 2006.

Denis Kazungu

Name

Denis Kazungu

Country

Rwanda

Years active

2023

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Murdered 14 people at his home in Kigali, arrested and pleaded guilty in September 2023.

Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn

Name

Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn

Country

Thailand

Years active

2015–2023

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Sentenced to death in 2024 for poisoning 14 people with cyanide.

Jake Bird

Name

Jake Bird

Country

United States

Years active

1930–1947

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Sentenced to death for the murders of two people; confessed to 44 other murders; 11 were substantiated and he was suspected in the others. Executed by hanging in 1949.

Cleveland Torso Murderer

Name

Cleveland Torso Murderer

Country

United States

Years active

1934–1938

Proven victims

Possible victims

40+

Notes

Unidentified serial killer, also known as "The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run", who targeted drifters and derelicts, of whom only two were identified, between 1934 and 1938 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Kaspars Petrovs

Name

Kaspars Petrovs

Country

Latvia

Years active

2003

Proven victims

Possible victims

38+

Notes

Confessed to strangling 38 elderly residents of Riga, Latvia, in 2003. Convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the robbery and murder of 13.

Peter Sutcliffe

Name

Peter Sutcliffe

Country

United Kingdom

Years active

1975–1980

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed at least 13 women between 30 October 1975 and 17 November 1980. Most victims were killed by a combination of bludgeoning and stabbing, and all but two were killed in the county of Yorkshire. Owing to the modus operandi and location of the murders, Sutcliffe became known as the "Yorkshire Ripper". Sentenced to 20 concurrent life sentences. Af

Fosaville Serial Killer

Name

Fosaville Serial Killer

Country

South Africa

Years active

1999–2003

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Kidnapped, bound, and strangled at least 13 women in Fosaville, South Africa. He may also be responsible for the "Riverman" murders.

William Suff

Name

William Suff

Country

United States

Years active

1986–1992

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Previously served 10 years of a 70-year sentence for beating his baby daughter to death. Beginning two years after his release, this county store clerk raped, stabbed, strangled, and sometimes mutilated 12 or more sex workers in Riverside County, California. Known as the "Riverside Prostitute Killer" and the "Lake Elsinore Killer". Sentenced to dea

Richard Ramirez

Name

Richard Ramirez

Country

United States

Years active

1984–1985

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed 13 people between 28 June 1984, and 24 August 1985, in Los Angeles. Known as the "Night Stalker". Ramirez was sentenced to death in 1989, and died of B-cell lymphoma in 2013 while still on death row.

Sleepy Hollow Killer

Name

Sleepy Hollow Killer

Country

South Africa

Years active

1990s–2007

Proven victims

Possible victims

16+

Notes

Raped and murdered women, mostly sex workers, around Pietermaritzburg and the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal.

Francisco Antonio Laureana

Name

Francisco Antonio Laureana

Country

Argentina

Years active

1974–1975

Proven victims

Possible victims

13+

Notes

Raped 15 women in San Isidro, killing 13 of them. Shot and killed during a firefight with police.

Joseph James DeAngelo

Name

Joseph James DeAngelo

Country

United States

Years active

1979–1986

Proven victims

Possible victims

13+

Notes

Known as the "Golden State Killer", "Original Night Stalker", and "East Area Rapist". A police officer who committed at least 13 murders, 50 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California in the 1970s and 1980s. He was identified and arrested in 2018 after DNA evidence confirmed it was him. In 2020, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in priso

Tamara Samsonova

Name

Tamara Samsonova

Country

Russia

Years active

1995–2015

Proven victims

Possible victims

13+

Notes

Known as the "Granny Ripper"; killed and allegedly cannibalized people in her apartment; committed to a psychiatric clinic.

Boston Strangler

Name

Boston Strangler

Country

United States

Years active

1962–1964

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Although Albert DeSalvo was widely thought to be the Boston Strangler, police and others analysing the case have long doubted the truth of his confession. Sentenced to life for a series of rapes, he was murdered in prison. DeSalvo's body was exhumed for DNA testing, and compared to a substance found on the exhumed body of the Boston Strangler's las

Herbert Mullin

Name

Herbert Mullin

Country

United States

Years active

1972–1973

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Despite detailed confessions, prosecutors decided not to try him for the first three crimes, instead focusing on crimes that conflicted with his insanity plea. Sentenced to imprisonment for life.

Vladimir Storozhenko

Name

Vladimir Storozhenko

Country

Soviet Union

Years active

1978–1981

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Smolensky Strangler"; tortured and murdered women for sexual pleasure; four other innocent men were initially convicted for his crimes; executed 1982.

Johannes Mashiane

Name

Johannes Mashiane

Country

South Africa

Years active

1982–1989

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Beast of Atteridgeville", he was found guilty of 13 counts of murder and 12 counts of sodomy from 1982 to 1989. Killed himself by throwing himself under a bus while being pursued by police in 1989.

Vasiliy Kulik

Name

Vasiliy Kulik

Country

Soviet Union

Years active

1984–1986

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the Irkutsk Monster; killed at least 13 victims from 1984 to 1986. Executed by firing squad in 1989.

Nikolai Dudin

Name

Nikolai Dudin

Country

Soviet Union Russia

Years active

1987–2002

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Grim Maniac"; killed his father in 1987, and after release, killed 12 more people while intoxicated; sentenced to life imprisonment.

Mukosi Freddy Mulaudzi

Name

Mukosi Freddy Mulaudzi

Country

South Africa

Years active

1990–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Limpopo Serial Killer"; escaped convict, originally responsible for two murders, who murdered 11 more after his prison escape; given 11 life sentences.

Duan Guocheng

Name

Duan Guocheng

Country

China

Years active

1999–2001

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Nicknamed "The Red-dress killer" or "The Red-dress slasher" because his victims were lone women walking alone either wearing red-dresses or another type of red. He sparked panic among women in Central China, with public officials warning them to stop wearing red during the years which he was at large.

Nikolay Shubin

Name

Nikolay Shubin

Country

Russia

Years active

2004–2006

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Paranoid schizophrenic who killed people who beat him in chess games; sentenced to compulsory treatment.

Thozamile Taki

Name

Thozamile Taki

Country

South Africa

Years active

2007

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Sugar cane serial killer", he murdered 13 women. Convicted in 2010.

"Rainbow Maniac"

Name

"Rainbow Maniac"

Country

Brazil

Years active

2007–2008

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Unidentified serial killer who shot gay men in the head (except one, who was bludgeoned) in the Paturis Park of Carapicuiba.

Li Wenxiang

Name

Li Wenxiang

Country

China

Years active

1991–1996

Proven victims

Notes

Known as "The Guangzhou Ripper". Killed 13 female sex workers in Guangzhou. Executed.

Adolf Seefeldt

Name

Adolf Seefeldt

Country

Germany

Years active

1908–1935

Proven victims

Possible victims

100

Notes

Known as the "Sandman"; sexually abused young boys in their sleep, then poisoned them; suspected of 100 murders in total. Executed by guillotine in 1936.

José Manuel Martínez

Name

José Manuel Martínez

Country

United States

Years active

1978–2013

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Mexican-American self-confessed hitman who admitted to committing 36 murders in twelve different states, sometimes on the orders of his cartel bosses and sometimes out of personal animosity. Ultimately convicted or pleaded guilty to a total of twelve murders in three different states.

Charles Sobhraj

Name

Charles Sobhraj

Country

Thailand Nepal India Malaysia

Years active

1975–1976

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

French con man known as "The Bikini Killer" or "The Serpent" that targeted Western tourists in vacation spots of South-east Asia, often with the help of female accomplices. Imprisoned in India from 1976 to 1997, and sentenced to life imprisonment in Nepal in 2004. He was released from prison in Nepal in 2022.

Bruce George Peter Lee

Name

Bruce George Peter Lee

Country

United Kingdom

Years active

1973–1979

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Epileptic arsonist who killed people in the city of Hull; sentenced to life imprisonment, but was later institutionalized. Originally convicted of killing 26 people, but fourteen of his convictions were overturned after evidence suggested that the fires which killed them may have been accidental.

Slamet Tohari

Name

Slamet Tohari

Country

Indonesia

Years active

2020–2023

Proven victims

Possible victims

24+

Notes

Swindler who was convicted of 12 murders by cyanide poisoning committed in Central Java between 2020 and 2023. He confessed to "dozens" of murders. Sentenced to death in 2024.

Vladimir Romanov

Name

Vladimir Romanov

Country

Soviet Union Russia

Years active

1991–2005

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Kaliningrad Maniac"; a child rapist who murdered girls and young women in the Kaliningrad Oblast; killed himself while imprisoned.

Maury Travis

Name

Maury Travis

Country

United States

Years active

2000–2002

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed sex workers in the St. Louis area from 2000 to 2002. Caught when he mailed an Expedia map showing where to find a body to a St. Louis newspaper. Killed himself by hanging in prison.

Dennis Nilsen

Name

Dennis Nilsen

Country

United Kingdom

Years active

1978–1983

Proven victims

Possible victims

15–16

Notes

Picked up young men in London between 1978 and 1983 and dismembered them, keeping various body parts around his home. Died from surgical complications in 2018.

Kenneth Bianchi

Name

Kenneth Bianchi

Country

United States

Years active

1977–1978

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Convicted of strangling 12 female victims aged 12 to 28 and suspected in another three cases. One of the "Hillside Stranglers". Sentenced to imprisonment for life.

Enriqueta Martí

Name

Enriqueta Martí

Country

Spain

Years active

c. 1900–1912

Proven victims

Possible victims

12+

Notes

Self-proclaimed witch that abducted, prostituted, murdered and made potions with the bodies of small children that she sold in Barcelona. Remains of 12 different children were identified in her home, but she is believed to have murdered more. Murdered in prison by fellow inmates while awaiting trial in 1913. Recent investigations by writer Jordi Co

Abdallah al-Hubal

Name

Abdallah al-Hubal

Country

Yemen

Years active

1990–1998

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed seven people after Yemeni unification; fled prison, then proceeded to kill a young couple and three more people; killed during a shootout with police.

Nikolai Shestakov

Name

Nikolai Shestakov

Country

Soviet Union

Years active

1975

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Luberetsky Maniac"; truck driver who raped and killed girls and young women; supposedly executed in 1977.

Joseph Christopher

Name

Joseph Christopher

Country

United States

Years active

1980–1981

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Midtown Slasher"; racist who killed 12 people, all but one of them African Americans, in 1980 and 1981, between upstate New York and Georgia, mutilating two of them. Sentenced to life imprisonment, died in prison age 33 of breast cancer.

"Paraquat murders" killer

Name

"Paraquat murders" killer

Country

Japan

Years active

1985

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Unidentified serial killer who carried out a series of indiscriminate poisonings in Japan in 1985 that killed 12.

Siswanto

Name

Siswanto

Country

Indonesia

Years active

1994–1996

Proven victims

Notes

Alias Robot Gedek. Homeless man that killed 12 boys. Sentenced to death on 21 May 1997. Died in prison on 26 March 2007.

Sergey Golovkin

Name

Sergey Golovkin

Country

Soviet Union Russia

Years active

1986–1992

Proven victims

Possible victims

40+

Notes

Killed at least 11 boys in the Moscow area between 1986 and 1992. Executed by gunshot in 1996; last person executed in Russia before the death penalty was abolished.

Tiago Henrique Gomes da Rocha

Name

Tiago Henrique Gomes da Rocha

Country

Brazil

Years active

2011–2014

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Gomes da Rocha was a Brazilian security guard who confessed to the murders of 39 people. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for 11 murders, and attempted suicide while incarcerated.

Herb Baumeister

Name

Herb Baumeister

Country

United States

Years active

1990–1996

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Strangled gay men and buried their bodies in his backyard in Indiana and Ohio; 11 men were found in the yard but only five were identified. Died after shooting himself when faced with arrest.

Zhang Yongming

Name

Zhang Yongming

Country

China

Years active

2008–2012

Proven victims

Possible victims

17–20

Notes

Sold flesh of his victims as 'ostrich meat' and kept eyeballs in wine. Executed.

Jack Unterweger

Name

Jack Unterweger

Country

Austria United States Czechoslovakia

Years active

1974–1992

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Served 14 years in Austrian prison because of a murder in 1974; killed at least nine sex workers after his release. Was a small media star in Austrian media in the early 1990s and, on behalf of Austrian police, was arrested in the US, where he may have killed another three sex workers. Hanged himself in 1994 after being sentenced to life in prison.

Vitaly Manishin

Name

Vitaly Manishin

Country

Soviet Union Russia

Years active

1989–2000

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Barnaul Maniac"; raped and murdered at least 11 girls and women in Barnaul and Buranovo. He was apprehended in 2023 via DNA evidence and convicted in 2025.

Vaughn Greenwood

Name

Vaughn Greenwood

Country

United States

Years active

1964–1975

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as the "Skid Row Slasher". Killed 11 people, suspected of two more. Cut victims' throats from ear to ear and may have drunk their blood. Sentenced to imprisonment for life.

Anthony Sowell

Name

Anthony Sowell

Country

United States

Years active

2007–2009

Proven victims

Possible victims

11+

Notes

Known as The Cleveland Strangler, he was convicted of killing 11 women between 2007 and 2009, and is suspected in another series of murders in the 1980s, with the two sets of killings separated by a 15-year stint in prison. Sentenced to death.

Henri Désiré Landru

Name

Henri Désiré Landru

Country

France

Years active

1915–1919

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Nicknamed "Bluebeard", he put notes in the lonely hearts section of newspapers under different aliases, presenting himself as a widower that wanted to marry a war widow. He killed at least 10 women and the teenage son of one of them, and burned their bodies after he had gained access to their assets. Executed by guillotine in 1922.

Nannie Doss

Name

Nannie Doss

Country

United States

Years active

1927–1954

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Responsible for 11 deaths between 1927 and 1954. Known as the "Giggling Nanny", the "Giggling Granny", and the "Jolly Black Widow". Sentenced to imprisonment for life. Died of leukemia in 1965, age 59.

Marie Alexandrine Becker

Name

Marie Alexandrine Becker

Country

Belgium

Years active

1933–1936

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Poisoned wealthy clients while working as a seamstress. Died in prison in 1942.

Seisaku Nakamura

Name

Seisaku Nakamura

Country

Japan

Years active

1938–1942

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Teenage serial killer known as the "Hamamatsu Deaf Killer" for having been born deaf. Murdered 11 people (including his brother) and attacked many others, among them his father, sister, brother-in-law and nephew. Tried as an adult and executed by hanging.

Robledo Puch

Name

Robledo Puch

Country

Argentina

Years active

1971

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Convicted of 11 murders and multiple other crimes including attempted murder and sexual assault. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1980.

Clifford Olson

Name

Clifford Olson

Country

Canada

Years active

1980–1981

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Considered a dangerous offender, meaning that Olson could never have been released from prison. He had three parole applications rejected. Died from cancer in 2011.

Francisco García Escalero

Name

Francisco García Escalero

Country

Spain

Years active

1987–1994

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Killer Beggar". A necrophilic, schizophrenic homeless man found insane and confined to a psychiatric hospital after killing 11 sex workers and other homeless people between 1987 and 1994. Died in 2014.

Henry Louis Wallace

Name

Henry Louis Wallace

Country

United States

Years active

1990–1994

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Murdered 11 black women in Charlotte, North Carolina. The victims were all women that he knew.

Benjamin Atkins

Name

Benjamin Atkins

Country

United States

Years active

1991–1992

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "The Woodward Corridor Killer". Raped and strangled his victims before abandoning their bodies in vacant buildings. Died in prison in 1997, age 29, from AIDS.

Adnan Çolak

Name

Adnan Çolak

Country

Turkey

Years active

1992–1995

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Killed 11 elderly women aged 68 to 95 and raped six others. Sentenced to death but commuted to life in prison after Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004.

Andre Crawford

Name

Andre Crawford

Country

United States

Years active

1993–1999

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Murdered 11 women between 1993 and 1999. Sentenced to life in prison.

Francisco de Assis Pereira

Name

Francisco de Assis Pereira

Country

Brazil

Years active

1997–1998

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Rapist and serial killer, known as "O Maníaco do Parque" (The Park Maniac). He was arrested for the torture, rape and death of 11 women and for assaulting nine in a park in São Paulo, Brazil during the 1990s. Pereira found his victims by posing as a talent scout for a modeling agency. Sentenced to 268 years.

Gao Chengyong

Name

Gao Chengyong

Country

China

Years active

1998–2002

Proven victims

Possible victims

Notes

Known as "Chinese Jack the Ripper"; killed women and then mutilated their corpses. Executed in 2019.

Name	Country	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Notes
Carl Eugene Watts	United States	1974–1982	14	100+	Believed to have killed over 80 women in multiple states, in 1982 Watts accepted a plea bargain in Texas in which he would plead guilty to a lesser charge and be granted immunity from murder charges in exchange for providing information on his victims; as a result he confessed to 12 murders and was sentenced to 60 years in prison on the lesser char
Belle Gunness	United States	1884–1908	14	40	Norwegian-born murder-for-profit killer who murdered her suitors and relatives in Indiana. High possibility of committing over 40 murders. May have faked her own death in the fire that destroyed her home in 1908; her children had died of strychnine poisoning before the fire, and the woman's body found next to them was decapitated and, reportedly, s
Philipp Tyurin	Soviet Union	1945–1946	14	29	Known as the "Leningrad Maniac" and the "Hellraiser"; murdered people for monetary reasons at his hut in Leningrad; executed 1947.
Zdzisław Marchwicki	Poland	1964–1970	14	21+	Also known as Vampire of Zagłębie. Killed 14 women in 1964–1970 in Poland's region of Dąbrowa Basin. Zdzisław Marchwicki was most likely the man responsible for the killings; however, his guilt remains in dispute. Executed in 1977.
Julio Pérez Silva	Chile	1998–2001	14	19	Known as The Psychopath from Alto Hospicio; killed 14 women. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004.
Monster of Florence	Italy	1968–1985	14	16	Unidentified killer who shot couples in lovers lanes and mutilated the women, taking their sexual organs and in the last two cases, also their left breast. 69-year-old farmer Pietro Pacciani was controversially convicted of 14 crimes in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison, but he was released following allegations that the scant evidence had been
Joachim Kroll	West Germany	1955–1976	14	14	Known as the "Ruhr Cannibal" and "The Duisburg Man-Eater"; died from a heart attack in prison in 1991.
Arthur Shawcross	United States	1972–1989	14	14	Committed arson and burglary, served two years of a five-year sentence. Within a year of his release, he raped and murdered two children in 1972. Under a plea bargain, he was sentenced to 25 years. Released after serving 14½ years, he began killing again a year later, targeting sex workers. Known as the "Genesee River Killer", "Genesee River Strang
Naceur Damergi	Tunisia	1980–1988	14	14	Raped and killed minors in the Nabeul region; executed by hanging in 1990.
Muthukutty Chandran	India	1985–1986	14	14	Committed 14 robbery-murders between 1985 and 1986 in Kerala, executed by hanging on 6 July 1991.
Marcelo Costa de Andrade	Brazil	1991	14	14	Known as The Vampire of Niterói. Raped and killed 14 children in Rio de Janeiro and Niterói. Drank the blood of his victims. Found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Sergey Shipilov	Russia	1995–1999	14	14	Known as the "Velsk Chikatilo"; killed female hitchhikers in the town of Velsk, most of them while out on prison leave; sentenced to life imprisonment.
Dorángel Vargas	Venezuela	1997–1999	14	14	Homeless cannibal known as "The People Eater" (El Comegente) and "The Hannibal Lecter of the Andes". Murdered a homeless man and was institutionalized. After escaping the institution, he went on to kill ten other men and was arrested. In 2016, he and several other inmates killed three others and Vargas fed their remains to them.
Hua Ruizhuo	China	1998–2001	14	14	Was responsible for the murders of 14 sex workers in Beijing's Chaoyang District.
Denis Pischikov	Russia	2002–2003	14	14	Known at the "Shivering Creature"; robbed and killed elderly people around the Moscow Oblast and Vladimir Oblast; sentenced to life imprisonment.
Abdufatto Zamanov	Russia	2002–2004	14	14	Killed people out of personal hostility; also raped two young girls; sentenced to life imprisonment.
Jeong Nam-gyu	South Korea	2004–2006	14	14	Kidnapped, raped and murdered people; killed himself.
Amir Qayyum	Pakistan	2005	14	14	Known as "The brick killer". Killed 14 homeless men with rocks or bricks when they were asleep. Sentenced to death in May 2006.
Denis Kazungu	Rwanda	2023	14	14	Murdered 14 people at his home in Kigali, arrested and pleaded guilty in September 2023.
Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn	Thailand	2015–2023	14	14	Sentenced to death in 2024 for poisoning 14 people with cyanide.
Jake Bird	United States	1930–1947	13	46	Sentenced to death for the murders of two people; confessed to 44 other murders; 11 were substantiated and he was suspected in the others. Executed by hanging in 1949.
Cleveland Torso Murderer	United States	1934–1938	13	40+	Unidentified serial killer, also known as "The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run", who targeted drifters and derelicts, of whom only two were identified, between 1934 and 1938 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Kaspars Petrovs	Latvia	2003	13	38+	Confessed to strangling 38 elderly residents of Riga, Latvia, in 2003. Convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the robbery and murder of 13.
Peter Sutcliffe	United Kingdom	1975–1980	13	33	Killed at least 13 women between 30 October 1975 and 17 November 1980. Most victims were killed by a combination of bludgeoning and stabbing, and all but two were killed in the county of Yorkshire. Owing to the modus operandi and location of the murders, Sutcliffe became known as the "Yorkshire Ripper". Sentenced to 20 concurrent life sentences. Af
Fosaville Serial Killer	South Africa	1999–2003	13	26	Kidnapped, bound, and strangled at least 13 women in Fosaville, South Africa. He may also be responsible for the "Riverman" murders.
William Suff	United States	1986–1992	13	23	Previously served 10 years of a 70-year sentence for beating his baby daughter to death. Beginning two years after his release, this county store clerk raped, stabbed, strangled, and sometimes mutilated 12 or more sex workers in Riverside County, California. Known as the "Riverside Prostitute Killer" and the "Lake Elsinore Killer". Sentenced to dea
Richard Ramirez	United States	1984–1985	13	20	Killed 13 people between 28 June 1984, and 24 August 1985, in Los Angeles. Known as the "Night Stalker". Ramirez was sentenced to death in 1989, and died of B-cell lymphoma in 2013 while still on death row.
Sleepy Hollow Killer	South Africa	1990s–2007	13	16+	Raped and murdered women, mostly sex workers, around Pietermaritzburg and the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal.
Francisco Antonio Laureana	Argentina	1974–1975	13	13+	Raped 15 women in San Isidro, killing 13 of them. Shot and killed during a firefight with police.
Joseph James DeAngelo	United States	1979–1986	13	13+	Known as the "Golden State Killer", "Original Night Stalker", and "East Area Rapist". A police officer who committed at least 13 murders, 50 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California in the 1970s and 1980s. He was identified and arrested in 2018 after DNA evidence confirmed it was him. In 2020, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in priso
Tamara Samsonova	Russia	1995–2015	13	13+	Known as the "Granny Ripper"; killed and allegedly cannibalized people in her apartment; committed to a psychiatric clinic.
Boston Strangler	United States	1962–1964	13	13	Although Albert DeSalvo was widely thought to be the Boston Strangler, police and others analysing the case have long doubted the truth of his confession. Sentenced to life for a series of rapes, he was murdered in prison. DeSalvo's body was exhumed for DNA testing, and compared to a substance found on the exhumed body of the Boston Strangler's las
Herbert Mullin	United States	1972–1973	13	13	Despite detailed confessions, prosecutors decided not to try him for the first three crimes, instead focusing on crimes that conflicted with his insanity plea. Sentenced to imprisonment for life.
Vladimir Storozhenko	Soviet Union	1978–1981	13	13	Known as the "Smolensky Strangler"; tortured and murdered women for sexual pleasure; four other innocent men were initially convicted for his crimes; executed 1982.
Johannes Mashiane	South Africa	1982–1989	13	13	Known as "The Beast of Atteridgeville", he was found guilty of 13 counts of murder and 12 counts of sodomy from 1982 to 1989. Killed himself by throwing himself under a bus while being pursued by police in 1989.
Vasiliy Kulik	Soviet Union	1984–1986	13	13	Known as the Irkutsk Monster; killed at least 13 victims from 1984 to 1986. Executed by firing squad in 1989.
Nikolai Dudin	Soviet Union Russia	1987–2002	13	13	Known as the "Grim Maniac"; killed his father in 1987, and after release, killed 12 more people while intoxicated; sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mukosi Freddy Mulaudzi	South Africa	1990–2006	13	13	Known as "The Limpopo Serial Killer"; escaped convict, originally responsible for two murders, who murdered 11 more after his prison escape; given 11 life sentences.
Duan Guocheng	China	1999–2001	13	13	Nicknamed "The Red-dress killer" or "The Red-dress slasher" because his victims were lone women walking alone either wearing red-dresses or another type of red. He sparked panic among women in Central China, with public officials warning them to stop wearing red during the years which he was at large.
Nikolay Shubin	Russia	2004–2006	13	13	Paranoid schizophrenic who killed people who beat him in chess games; sentenced to compulsory treatment.
Thozamile Taki	South Africa	2007	13	13	Known as the "Sugar cane serial killer", he murdered 13 women. Convicted in 2010.
"Rainbow Maniac"	Brazil	2007–2008	13	13	Unidentified serial killer who shot gay men in the head (except one, who was bludgeoned) in the Paturis Park of Carapicuiba.
Li Wenxiang	China	1991–1996	13		Known as "The Guangzhou Ripper". Killed 13 female sex workers in Guangzhou. Executed.
Adolf Seefeldt	Germany	1908–1935	12	100	Known as the "Sandman"; sexually abused young boys in their sleep, then poisoned them; suspected of 100 murders in total. Executed by guillotine in 1936.
José Manuel Martínez	United States	1978–2013	12	36	Mexican-American self-confessed hitman who admitted to committing 36 murders in twelve different states, sometimes on the orders of his cartel bosses and sometimes out of personal animosity. Ultimately convicted or pleaded guilty to a total of twelve murders in three different states.
Charles Sobhraj	Thailand Nepal India Malaysia	1975–1976	12	30	French con man known as "The Bikini Killer" or "The Serpent" that targeted Western tourists in vacation spots of South-east Asia, often with the help of female accomplices. Imprisoned in India from 1976 to 1997, and sentenced to life imprisonment in Nepal in 2004. He was released from prison in Nepal in 2022.
Bruce George Peter Lee	United Kingdom	1973–1979	12	26	Epileptic arsonist who killed people in the city of Hull; sentenced to life imprisonment, but was later institutionalized. Originally convicted of killing 26 people, but fourteen of his convictions were overturned after evidence suggested that the fires which killed them may have been accidental.
Slamet Tohari	Indonesia	2020–2023	12	24+	Swindler who was convicted of 12 murders by cyanide poisoning committed in Central Java between 2020 and 2023. He confessed to "dozens" of murders. Sentenced to death in 2024.
Vladimir Romanov	Soviet Union Russia	1991–2005	12	20	Known as the "Kaliningrad Maniac"; a child rapist who murdered girls and young women in the Kaliningrad Oblast; killed himself while imprisoned.