The Zodiac Killer is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. The Zodiac murdered five known victims in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969, operating in rural, urban, and suburban settings. He targeted three young couples and a lone male cab driver. The case has been described as "arguably the most famous unsolved murder case in American history," and has become both a fixture of popular culture and a focus for efforts by amateur detectives.
Henry Lee Lucas, also known as the Confession Killer, was an American convicted murderer. 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.
Christopher Bernard Wilder, also known as the Beauty Queen Killer and the Snapshot Killer, was an Australian-American serial killer who abducted at least twelve young women and girls, killing eight of them during a six-week, cross-country crime spree in the United States in early 1984. Wilder's series of murders began in Florida on February 26, 1984, and continued across the country through Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada and California, with attempted abductions in Washington and New York. Wilder victimized attractive young women, most of whom he would entice by promising to take their pictures. After subduing them, he would torture and rape them before shooting, stabbing with a knife, or strangling them to death. Two or more of his victims were electrocuted using a makeshift electrical cord.
David Joseph Carpenter, known as The Trailside Killer, is an American serial killer and serial rapist known for stalking and murdering a variety of individuals on hiking trails in state parks near San Francisco, California. He attacked at least ten individuals and was convicted in seven murders and was confirmed to be the killer in an eighth murder; Carpenter is also suspected in two additional killings. Two victims, Steven Haertle and Lois Rinna, mother of television personality Lisa Rinna, survived. Carpenter used a .38 caliber handgun in all but one of the killings. A .44 caliber handgun was used in the killing of Edda Kane on Mount Tamalpais.
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates occurred in Riverside, California, on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College. Police determined the assailant had disabled the ignition coil wire and distributor of Bates' Volkswagen Beetle as a method to lure her from her car as she studied in the college library. The murder itself remains one of Riverside's most infamous cold cases, and has been described by some locals as a murder which "stripped Riverside of its innocence".
The Honolulu Strangler, also known as The Honolulu Rapist, is the nickname given to an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have killed five women in Hawaii from 1985 and 1986. He is the second known serial killer active in the state.
Karl Francis Werner was an American serial killer who was active in Santa Clara County in Northern California. He was convicted of the murder of three teenage girls during his period of activity from 1969 to 1971.
The Speed Freak Killers is the name given to serial killer duo Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine, together initially convicted of four murders — three jointly — and suspected in the deaths of as many as 72 people in and around San Joaquin County, California, based on a letter Shermantine wrote to a reporter in 2012. They received the "speed freak" moniker due to their habitual methamphetamine abuse. Herzog committed suicide in 2012. Shermantine remains on death row in San Quentin State Prison, in San Quentin, California.
The Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders were a series of at least seven unsolved homicides involving female hitchhikers that took place in Sonoma County and Santa Rosa of the North Bay area of California in 1972 and 1973. All of the victims were found nude in rural areas near steep embankments or in creek beds near roads. Californian police believe that the perpetrator(s) of the Santa Rosa murders "interviewed" potential victims before killing them. Despite extensive investigations, they remain unidentified.
The Gypsy Hill killings were a group of five homicides of young women and girls in San Mateo County, California, during early 1976. The killer became known in the media as the "San Mateo Slasher." It was later proven that there were at least two different perpetrators with Rodney Halbower convicted of the murders of Baxter, Cascio and Michelle Mitchell and Leon Seymour being convicted in the sole murder of Lampe. It is believed Blackwell and Booth were killed by Halbower, but there's no evidence yet to tie him to those cases and Friedman's murder is also unsolved with these killings being partially unresolved.
Joseph Naso, also known as Crazy Joe or the Double Initial Killer, is an American serial killer and serial rapist sentenced to death for the murders of at least four women.
Terry Peder Rasmussen was an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer who was convicted of one murder, and linked to at least five more in a series of crimes that stretched across the contiguous United States between 1978 and 2002. Due to his use of many aliases, most notably "Bob Evans", Rasmussen is known as the Chameleon Killer.
Samuel Little was an American serial killer of women who 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.
Sebastian Alexander Shaw was a Vietnam-born American serial killer and rapist responsible for at least three murders in Portland, Oregon between 1991 and 1992. When interviewed by detectives in prison, Shaw confessed to killing ten more people. He is the prime suspect for the 1994 murder of 14-year-old Jenny Lin in Castro Valley, California. At the time of his death he was serving three life sentences in the Oregon State Penitentiary
The Pittsburg serial murders refers to the killings of one man and four women in Pittsburg, California, in late 1998 and early 1999. At the time of the killings, the city had a high crime rate, which coupled with the recent murders of several people, culminated in public outcry from both the public and the media for a resolution to the situation and capture of the supposed serial killer. Despite an investigation by the FBI and a financial reward for the killer(s)'s capture being offered by the then-Governor of California Gray Davis, none of the murders were ever solved.
Joseph Brant is an American murderer and rapist who killed one woman in New Orleans but is suspected of killing at least three more from October 2007 to September 2008 in the then-post-Hurricane Katrina environment.
The Kauai serial killer is an unidentified serial killer and rapist who murdered two women and injured another on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, between April and August of 2000. Despite a composite sketch of the perpetrator and the availability of his DNA, he was never caught, and the murders remain unsolved.
