Lists of murderers include lists of rampage killers who kill two or more victims in a short time, including mass murderers and spree killers, and lists of serial killers, who murder three or more people over more than a month, with a significant period of time between the murders. [lower-alpha 1]
A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people, with the killings taking place over a significant period of time between them. The serial killers' 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 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. The FBI will focus on particular patterns that the serial killers follow throughout their murders. They will then use on the patterns they find for key clues into finding the killer along with their motives. 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.
Mass murder is the violent crime of killing a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in proximity. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more persons kill several others.
A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders 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.
Going postal is an American English slang phrase referring to becoming extremely and uncontrollably angry, often to the point of violence, and usually in a workplace environment. The expression derives from a series of incidents from 1986 onward in which United States Postal Service (USPS) workers shot and killed managers, fellow workers, police officers and members of the general public in acts of mass murder. Between 1970 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed by then-current or former employees in at least 20 incidents of workplace rage. Between 1986 and 2011, workplace shootings happened roughly twice per year, with an average of 1.18 people killed per year.
Yang Xinhai, also known as Yang Zhiya, and Yang Liu, was a Chinese serial killer who confessed to committing 67 murders and 23 rapes between 1999 and 2003. He was sentenced to death and executed. He was dubbed the "Monster Killer" by the media. He is the most prolific known serial killer China has seen since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
A familicide is a type of murder or murder-suicide in which an individual kills multiple close family members in quick succession, most often children, spouses, siblings, or parents. In half the cases, the killer lastly kills themselves in a murder-suicide. If only the parents are killed, the case may also be referred to as a parricide. Where all members of a family are killed, the crime may be referred to as family annihilation.
William Unek was a Ugandan police constable and serial mass murderer who killed a total of 57 people in two separate spree killings three years apart.
Following are lists of murders organized in various ways. Entries may appear in more than one section.
Yiğit Bekçe and Mehmet Karahasan, collectively known as The Highway Killers, are Turkish spree killers who killed seven people and injured two others during a 52-hour trip across six cities in October 2006. The first known spree killers in the country's history, the pair were jointly convicted of the killings and given five life terms.