7 Scariest Serial Killers

The details about some of the most notorious serial killers in history vary from the widow who became known as "Lady Bluebeard" and the man who inspired Psycho to the British doctor who murdered hundreds and the handsome slaughterer whose charisma proved lethal.

Posted On November 11th, 2020

Ted Bundy

Ted Bundy appeared to be the unlikeliest of serial murderers, handsome, well-educated and brimming with charisma. That made his decade-long spree of multi-state killing all the more shocking and tempting to others. Born to an unwed, underage mother, Bundy never realised the name of his father and was raised to think that his grandmother was actually his mother (and his sister was actually his mother).

Petro Lopez

Pedro Alonso López is a Colombian serial killer accused of murdering 110 people, but who has claimed to have killed and raped more than 300 girls in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.

H.H Holmes

Prior to travelling to Illinois in advance of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to work as a pharmacist, Holmes spent his early career as an insurance scammer. It was there that Holmes designed a three-story inn that he secretly converted into a macabre torture chamber, what he called his murder' palace.' Some rooms were filled with concealed peepholes, gas pipes, trap doors and soundproof insulation, while others had underground passages, ladders and hallways leading to dead ends. There was also a greased chute which led to the basement, where a surgical table, a furnace and even a mediaeval rack had been constructed by Holmes.

John Wayne Gacy

John Wayne Gacy was a nice guy to most of his suburban Chicago neighbours who threw famous block parties, volunteered in local Democratic politics and also appeared at local children's parties as a clown. Yet Gacy, who had already served a jail term for sexually assaulting a teenage boy, was hiding a terrible truth right under the blind eyes of his neighbours.

Harold Shipman

One of the worst serial killers in history was a married family man who, although employed as a renowned British doctor, managed to cram in 218 credited murders (and as many as 250). In 1972, Harold Shipman began his murderous rampage, and it is assumed that while working in his first clinic, he killed at least 71 patients, and double that number in a second practise that he entered after butting heads with colleagues who considered him rude, brusque and overconfident.

Jeffery Dahmer

In 1978, when he was only 18, Jeffrey Dahmer committed his first murder. Until his capture in 1991, after an African American man had fled his clutches and greeted the police near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he continued shooting. They found photos of dismembered corpses, the deadheads and genitals of several other men and a tub full of acid that Dahmer had used to dispose of each of his 17 victims when the survivor-led the police back to his captor's flat.

Jack The Ripper

In 1888, rumours of a brutal serial murderer roaming the city streets gripped London's Whitechapel area. Prior to slitting their throats and sadistically mutilating their corpses with a carving knife, the mysterious madman tricked prostitutes into darkened squares and side streets. Five bodies were found butchered in the downtrodden East End neighbourhood that summer and fall, sparking a national frenzy and a citywide manhunt. The murderer reportedly sent a series of letters to the London Metropolitan Police Force (also known as Scotland Yard), taunting cops about his heinous activities and speculating about potential murders.