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.
Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo was a Ukrainian-born Soviet serial killer nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov, the Rostov Ripper, and the Red Ripper who sexually assaulted, murdered, and mutilated at least fifty-two women and children between 1978 and 1990 in the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Uzbek SSR.
Peter Kürten was a German serial killer, known as "The Vampire of Düsseldorf" and the "Düsseldorf Monster", who committed a series of murders and sexual assaults between February and November 1929 in the city of Düsseldorf. In the years before these assaults and murders, Kürten had amassed a lengthy criminal record for offences including arson and attempted murder. He also confessed to the 1913 murder of a nine-year-old girl in Mülheim am Rhein and the attempted murder of a 17-year-old girl in Düsseldorf.
Daniel "Danny" Harold Rolling, known as The Gainesville Ripper, was an American serial killer who murdered five college students in Gainesville, Florida over four days in August 1990.
Joachim Georg Kroll was a German serial killer, child molester, necrophile and cannibal who murdered a minimum of eight women and young girls in the Ruhr metropolitan region from 1955 until his arrest on 3 July 1976. He was convicted of eight murders and one attempted murder, but confessed to a total of 14. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 8 April 1982.
Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann was a German serial killer, sexual predator, and alleged cannibal, though it was never proven that he cannibalized his victims. He killed himself while awaiting the end of his trial without giving a full confession, leaving the extent of his crimes and motives largely unknown.
Volker Eckert was a German serial killer, who killed at least six women in East Germany, France and Spain, between 1974 and 2006. Eckert confessed to only six murders, five of whom were sex workers, but is believed to have killed at least nine women, and is also accused of committing additional murders of women in several European countries including Italy and the Czech Republic, but investigations were closed after Eckert committed suicide during his criminal proceedings on July 2, 2007.
Magdalena Solís, known as The High Priestess of Blood, allegedly was a Mexican serial killer and cult leader responsible for orchestrating several murders which involved the drinking of the victims' blood. The murders were committed in Yerbabuena, Tamaulipas, during the early 1960s.
Paul Durousseau is an American serial killer who murdered seven young women in the southeastern United States between 1997 and 2003. German authorities suspect he may have also killed several local women when he was stationed there with the United States Army during the early 1990s. Typically, Durousseau would gain the victim's trust, enter the victim's home, tie their hands, rape, then strangle them to death. All of his known victims were young, single African-American women.
The Atlanta Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who is suspected of killing at least fifteen Atlanta women between 1909 and 1914.
Sergei Kashfulgayanovich Martynov is a Russian serial killer, convicted for the killing of 8 people across western and central Russia between 2005 and 2010, and was earlier convicted of killing another woman in 1992.
Rudolf Pleil was a German serial killer known as Der Totmacher. He was convicted of killing a salesman and nine women, but claimed to have killed 25 people. Many of his crimes took place mainly in the Harz mountain range.
Necrophilia is a pathological fascination with dead bodies, which often takes the form of a desire to engage with them in sexual activities, such as intercourse. Though prohibited by the laws of many countries, there have been many reported cases of necrophilia throughout history.
Maria Velten was a German serial killer, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for three murders. Maria Velten died in 2008 in a nursing home after having been released from prison for health reasons.
Marco Metzler is a German serial killer, who attacked women on the highways between Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia from 2003 to 2006, raping four and killing three of them.
Manfred Adolf Seel, also known as the Hesse Ripper, Jack the Ripper of Schwalbach and Alaska, was a suspected serial killer believed to have committed five murders in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main area of Germany between 1971 and 2004, and is currently under investigation for other unresolved deaths. Seel died of esophageal cancer before his alleged crimes were uncovered.
Samuel Gleydson Little was an American serial killer of women who confessed to committing 93 murders between 1970 and 2005. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) has confirmed Little's involvement in at least 60 of the 93 confessed murders, the largest number of confirmed victims for any serial killer in United States history.
Shelly Andre Brooks is an American serial killer who murdered at least seven women in Detroit, Michigan, from 2001 to 2006, though he is suspected of up to 20 murders and possibly more. He was caught thanks to a survivor and fully admitted his guilt at his trials, for which he was given multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.
