A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons, with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three murders, others extend it to four or lessen it to two.
A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders or homicides in a short time, often in multiple locations. There are different opinions about what durations of time a killing spree may take place in. The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics has spoken of "almost no time break between murders", but some academics consider that a killing spree may last weeks or months, e.g. the case of Andrew Cunanan, who murdered five people over three months.
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 while incarcerated for these crimes when he falsely confessed to approximately six hundred 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 is considered the most prolific serial killer in history. Lucas was convicted of murdering eleven people and condemned to death for a single case with a then-unidentified victim, later identified as Debra Jackson.
Caril Ann Fugate is the youngest female in United States history to have been tried and convicted of first-degree murder. She was the adolescent girlfriend of spree killer Charles Starkweather, being just 14 years old when his murders took place in 1958. She was convicted as his accomplice and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1976, she was paroled after serving 18 years.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a 1986 American psychological horror crime film directed and co-written by John McNaughton about the random crime spree of a serial killer who seemingly operates with impunity. It stars Michael Rooker in his debut as the nomadic killer Henry, Tom Towles as Otis, a prison buddy with whom Henry is living, and Tracy Arnold as Becky, Otis's sister. The characters of Henry and Otis are loosely based on convicted real life serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole.
John McNaughton is an American film and television director, originally from Chicago, Illinois, whose works encompass the horror, thriller, drama and comedy film genres. His films include Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), The Borrower (1991), Mad Dog and Glory (1993), Normal Life (1996), Wild Things (1998), Speaking of Sex (2001) and The Harvest (2013).
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 Ghelkins, who had gone missing in September 1975. During their search for the missing girl, police discovered eight bodies buried in shallow graves near Gaskins's home in Prospect, South Carolina.
Kevin is a fictional character in Frank Miller's graphic novel series Sin City, featured prominently in The Hard Goodbye. He is a mute, cannibalistic serial killer who preys on the titular city's prostitutes, The Girls of Old Town. He is protected by the powerful Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark, who also acts as his accomplice. Kevin lives at the Roark family farm, and uses the basement as an execution chamber for his victims; after he kills and eats them, he stuffs and mounts their heads on the walls like hunting trophies.
The Borrower is a 1991 American science fiction horror film directed by John McNaughton and starring Rae Dawn Chong, Tom Towles and Antonio Fargas. The story revolves around an alien serial killer, who is sent to Earth to live among humans as a form of penalty.
In the Light of the Moon is a 2000 crime horror film directed by Chuck Parello, and written by Stephen Johnston. It is based on the crimes of Ed Gein, an American murderer who killed at least two women in Plainfield, Wisconsin during the 1950s. It stars Steve Railsback as Gein, and Carrie Snodgress as Gein's domineering, fundamentalist mother, Augusta.
A copycat crime is a criminal act that is modelled after or inspired by a previous crime. It notably occurs after exposure to media content depicted said crimes, and/or a live criminal model.
Dead Tone is a 2007 American slasher film directed and written by Brian Hooks and Deon Taylor. It stars Hooks, Antwon Tanner, Cherie Johnson, Rutger Hauer, German Legarreta, Gwendoline Yeo and Aimee Garcia.
I Was a Teenage Serial Killer is an underground no budget film written and directed by independent filmmaker Sarah Jacobson. It is a short black-and-white film of a 19-year-old girl who is sick of sexist men and kills them. It was Jacobson's first major film and it was released through her own company, Station Wagon Productions. She made the film under the guidance of her teacher, George Kuchar. The film features songs by the early riot grrrl band Heavens to Betsy.
August Underground is a 2001 American exploitation horror film directed by Fred Vogel, and written by Vogel and Allen Peters. The film stars Vogel as a serial killer named Peter, who kidnaps and kills several innocent people, while his unnamed accomplice, played by Peters, films and documents the murders.
Glen Edward Rogers, also known as "The Cross Country Killer" or "The Casanova Killer", is an American serial killer. He was convicted of two murders and is a suspect in numerous others throughout the United States. He is considered a possible alternative suspect to O.J. Simpson in the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, although as of 2022 none of these other allegations have led to formal charges. Rogers was featured on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list after a crime spree that began on September 28, 1995, with Rogers' first authoritatively established murder.
The I-70 killer is an unidentified American serial killer who is known to have killed six store clerks in the Midwest in the spring of 1992. His nickname derives from the fact that several of the stores in which his victims worked were located a few miles off of Interstate 70.
Gholamreza Khoshroo Kuran Kurdieh was an Iranian serial killer known as the "Night Bat".
Juhani Aataminpoika, alias Kerpeikkari, was a Finnish serial killer. He killed 12 people in southern Finland between October and November in 1849. He has been characterized as the first serial killer in Finland.
Fanuel Makamu, known as The Mpumalanga Serial Rapist, is a South African robber, rapist and serial killer. Along with his accomplice, Henry Maile, the duo robbed, raped and killed women and nearby witnesses on streets between February and September 2000. Maile was killed during apprehension, and Makamu was sentenced to 165 years' imprisonment.
