John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered at least 33 young men and boys in Norwood Park Township, near Chicago, Illinois. He became known as the Killer Clown due to his public performances as a clown prior to the discovery of his crimes.
Frederick Walter Stephen West was an English serial killer, who committed at least twelve murders between 1967 and 1987 in Gloucestershire, the majority with his second wife, Rose West.
Laci Denise Peterson was an American woman killed while eight-months pregnant with her first child. Laci's husband, Scott Lee Peterson, was convicted of first-degree murder for her death and second-degree murder for the death of their unborn son. Originally sentenced to death, Scott's sentence was overturned in 2020, and, in 2021, he was re-sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Scott has maintained his innocence.
Alice Lynne "Lindy" Chamberlain-Creighton is a New Zealand–born Australian woman who was wrongfully convicted in one of Australia's most publicised murder trials. Accused of killing her nine-week-old daughter, Azaria, while camping at Uluru in 1980, she maintained that she saw a dingo leave the tent where Azaria was sleeping. The prosecution case was circumstantial and depended on forensic evidence.
Kristin Denise Smart was an American woman murdered by Paul Flores at the end of her freshman year on the campus of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Patrick Wayne Kearney, also known as The Trash Bag Killer and The Freeway Killer, is an American serial killer and necrophile who murdered a minimum of twenty-one young men and boys throughout southern California between 1962 and 1977.
John Favara was the backyard neighbor of Gambino crime family captain and later boss John Gotti, in Howard Beach, New York, United States, who disappeared on July 28, 1980, over four months after he struck and killed Gotti's 12-year-old son, Frank Gotti, by car as he darted into the street on a motorized minibike, on March 18.
Mack Ray Edwards was an American child sex abuser and serial killer who molested and murdered at least six children in Los Angeles County, California, between 1953 and 1970. Sentenced to death, he died by suicide by hanging in his prison cell.
It is possible to convict someone of murder without the purported victim's body in evidence. However, cases of this type have historically been hard to prove, often forcing the prosecution to rely on circumstantial evidence, and in England there was for centuries a mistaken view that in the absence of a body a killer could not be tried for murder. Developments in forensic science in recent decades have made it more likely that a murder conviction can be obtained even if a body has not been found.
Richard Marc Edward Evonitz was an American serial killer, kidnapper, and rapist responsible for the deaths of at least three teenaged girls in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, and the abduction and rape of a 15-year-old girl in Richland County, South Carolina. Evonitz has been suspected of other murders, and confessed a number of crimes to his sister shortly before committing suicide.
The McStay family murders occurred on or near February 4, 2010, after the family disappeared from their home in Fallbrook, California, United States; their bodies were found in the desert near Victorville, California, on November 13, 2013. Their disappearance was widely reported by the national news media.
Margaret Perry was a 26-year-old woman from Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland who was abducted on 21 June 1991. After a tip from the IRA, her body was found buried across the border in a field in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland, on 30 June 1992. She had been beaten to death. Her murder has never been solved.
Mark Anthony Tildesley was a seven-year-old English child who disappeared on 1 June 1984 whilst visiting a funfair in Wokingham, Berkshire. A widespread search of the Wokingham area, involving both police officers and British Army soldiers, did not locate him. Thames Valley Police initially suspected that his body was buried near Wellington Road in Wokingham, near the funfair from which he was abducted, but they now believe that he was probably buried in a shallow grave on abandoned farmland.
Dana Bradley was a 14-year-old girl who disappeared in St. John's, Newfoundland on 14 December 1981. Last seen hitchhiking on Topsail Road in St. John's, her body was discovered four days later in a wooded area south of the city. An intense and highly publicized investigation followed, and in 1986 a man confessed to her murder, but later recanted. As of 2022, the case remains open and unsolved.
William Clyde Gibson III is an American serial killer and rapist who is currently on Indiana's death row for the sexually-motivated murders of two women in 2002 and 2012, in addition to serving a 65-year sentence for a third murder committed in 2012. A habitual criminal noted for his increasingly violent streaks and his handlebar moustache, Gibson has claimed responsibility for upwards of 30 additional murders across multiple states, none of which have been confirmed.
Samuel Little was an American serial killer who confessed to murdering 93 women 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.
In the early hours of August 13, 2018, in Frederick, Colorado, American oil field operator Christopher Lee Watts murdered his pregnant wife Shanann (34) by strangulation, and their two children Bella (4) and Celeste (3) by smothering them. He buried Shanann in a shallow grave near an oil-storage facility, and dumped his children's bodies into crude oil tanks. Watts initially maintained his innocence in his family’s disappearance, but was arrested on August 15 after confessing to murdering Shanann in an interview with detectives. He later admitted to murdering his children.
John Joseph Fautenberry was an American serial killer. A long-haul trucker, Fautenberry befriended and subsequently murdered five people across four states between 1990 and 1991, and after his arrest, confessed to an additional 1984 murder for which another man was convicted. He was sentenced to death for one of his killings, and subsequently executed at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in 2009.
Mateo Banks y Keena was an Argentine spree killer who murdered six members of his family, in addition to two of the family's employees. The crimes occurred on two of the family's rural estates at Parish, near Azul, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, on 18 April 1922.
Larry Dewayne Hall is an American convict and suspected serial killer. An aficionado of the American Revolution and Civil War, Hall traveled around the Midwest for historical reenactments and is alleged to have abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered girls and women. He came to police attention after the discovery of a 15-year-old's remains in November 1993, and was convicted of her kidnapping. He later confessed to that and an additional murder, though recanted his confessions of both crimes. Since his arrest, Hall has confessed to more than 35 murders, recanting them all, though authorities believe he could be responsible for the deaths and disappearances of between 40 and 50 young women, which would place him among the most prolific serial killers in American history.
