A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people, with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separate events. Their psychological gratification is the motivation for the killings, and many serial murders involve sexual contact with the victims at different points during the murder process. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) states that the motives of serial killers can include anger, thrill-seeking, financial gain, and attention seeking, and killings may be executed as such. The victims tend to have things in common, such as demographic profile, appearance, gender, or race. As a group, serial killers suffer from a variety of personality disorders. Most are often not adjudicated as insane under the law. Although a serial killer is a distinct classification that differs from that of a mass murderer, spree killer, or contract killer, there are overlaps between them.
Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders committed between the early 1980s and late 1990s. As part of his plea bargain, another conviction was added, bringing the total number of convictions to 49, making him the second-most prolific serial killer in United States history according to confirmed murders.
Angel Maturino Reséndiz, known as The Railroad Killer, was a Mexican serial killer suspected in as many as 23 murders across the United States and Mexico during the 1990s, some of which involved sexual assault. He had become known as "The Railroad Killer", as most of his crimes were committed near railroads, where he had jumped off the trains which he was using to travel around.
Pedro Alonso López, also known as The Monster of the Andes, is a Colombian serial killer, child rapist, and fugitive who murdered a minimum of 110 people, mostly young women and girls, from 1969 to 1980. López claimed to have murdered over 300 people. He is considered by many as one of the most prolific serial killers and rapists in history.
Dennis Lynn Rader, also known as BTK, is an American serial killer who murdered at least 10 people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Although he occasionally killed or attempted to kill men and children, Rader typically targeted women. His victims were often bound, sometimes with objects from their homes, and either suffocated with a plastic bag or manually strangled with a ligature. In addition, he stole keepsakes from his female victims, including underwear, driver's licenses, and personal items.
Henry Lee Lucas, also known as the Confession Killer, was an American convicted serial killer. Lucas was convicted of murdering his mother in 1960 and two others in 1983. He rose to infamy as a claimed serial killer while incarcerated for these crimes when he falsely confessed to approximately 600 other murders to Texas Rangers and other law enforcement officials. Many unsolved cases were closed based on the confessions and the murders officially attributed to Lucas. He was convicted of murdering eleven people and condemned to death for a single case with a then-unidentified victim, later identified as Debra Jackson.
Randall Brent Woodfield is an American serial killer, serial rapist, kidnapper, robber, burglar and former football player who was dubbed the I-5 Killer or the I-5 Bandit by the media due to the crimes he committed along the Interstate 5 corridor running through Washington, Oregon and California. Before his capture, Woodfield was suspected of multiple sexual assaults and murders. Though convicted in only one murder, he has been linked to a total of 18 murders and is suspected of having killed up to as many as 44 people.
Yoo Young-chul is a South Korean serial killer, sex offender, and self-confessed cannibal. After he admitted to the murders of multiple people, mostly prostitutes and wealthy old couples, the Seoul Central District Court convicted him of 20 murders, although one case was dismissed when it turned out that the crime had been committed by another serial killer, Jeong Nam-gyu. Yoo burned three and mutilated at least 11 of his victims and admitted that he ate the livers of some of his victims. He committed his crimes between September 2003 and July 2004 and was apprehended on 15 July 2004. Yoo explained his motives in front of a TV camera saying "Women shouldn't be sluts, and the rich should know what they've done."
Mohammed Bijeh was an Iranian serial killer. He was convicted of raping and killing around 20 children, mostly boys, and was sentenced to 100 lashes followed by execution. All the boys were between 8 and 15 years old. The murder of children around Tehran was recognized as the largest criminal case in contemporary Iranian history and provoked national outrage. Bijeh's execution, which was witnessed by over 5,000 people including children, sparked debates on whether public executions should continue within the country.
Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. is an American criminal who committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 and 1986. He is responsible for three known separate crime sprees throughout the state, each of which spawned a different nickname in the press, before it became evident that they were committed by the same person.
Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins Jr. was an American serial killer and rapist from South Carolina who stabbed, shot, drowned, and poisoned more than a dozen people. Before his convictions for murder, Gaskins had a long history of criminal activities resulting in prison sentences for assault, burglary, and statutory rape. His last arrest was for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, 13-year-old Kim Gehlken, who had gone missing in September 1975. During their search for the missing girl, police discovered eight bodies buried in shallow graves near Gaskins' home in Prospect, South Carolina.
Keith Hunter Jesperson is a Canadian-American serial killer who murdered at least eight women in the United States during the early 1990s. He was known as the Happy Face Killer because he drew smiley faces on his many letters to the media and authorities. Many of Jesperson's victims were sex workers and transients who had no connection to him. Strangulation was his preferred method of murdering, the same method he often used to kill animals as a child.
Bobby Joe Long was an American serial killer and rapist who was executed by the state of Florida for the murder of Michelle Denise Simms. Long abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered at least ten women in the Tampa Bay area in Florida during an eight-month period in 1984.
Donald Harvey was an American serial killer who claimed to have murdered 87 people, though he has 37 confirmed victims. He was able to do this during his time as a hospital orderly. His spree took place between 1970 and 1987.
Tiago Henrique Gomes da Rocha is a Brazilian former security guard and serial killer who has claimed to have killed 39 people. He approached his victims on a motorbike and shouted "robbery" before shooting them. However, he never took anything. He targeted homeless people, women and homosexuals in Goiás. Sixteen of his victims were female, with the youngest being a 14-year-old girl whom he killed in January 2014.
Samuel Little was an American serial killer who was convicted of eight murders and confessed to committing 93 murders between 1970 and 2005. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program has confirmed his involvement in at least 60 murders, the largest number of confirmed victims for any serial killer in American history. Little provided sketches for twenty-six of his victims although not all have been linked to known murders.
Kingdom of Afghanistan 