List of serial killers by number of victims

A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more people, in two or more separate events over a period of time, for primarily psychological reasons.^[1]^[2] There are gaps of time between the killings, which may range from a few days to months, or many years.^[2]

This list shows all known serial killers from the 20th century to present day by number of victims, then possible victims, then date. For those from previous centuries, see List of serial killers before 1900. In many cases, the exact number of victims assigned to a serial killer is not known, and even if that person is convicted of a few, there can be the possibility that they killed many more.

Organization and ranking of serial killings is made difficult by the complex nature of serial killers and incomplete knowledge of the full extent of many killers' crimes. To address this, multiple categories have been provided in order to more accurately describe the nature of certain serial murders. This is not a reflection of an individual's overall rank, which may or may not vary depending on personal opinion concerning the nature and circumstances of their crimes. The fourth column in the table states the number of victims definitely assigned to that particular serial killer, and thus the table is in order of that figure. The fifth column states the number of possible victims the killer could have murdered. Some of these crimes are unsolved, but are included because they are the work of a serial killer, despite nobody being caught.

This list does not include mass murderers, spree killers, war criminals, members of democidal governments, or major political figures, such as Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, Hideki Tojo, Suharto, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, or Pol Pot.

[1]

[2]

Name	Country	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Notes
Luis Garavito	Colombia Ecuador^[3] Venezuela^[3]	1992–1999^[3]	193	194–300+	Child-murderer, torture-killer, and rapist known as "La Bestia" ("The Beast"). Garavito confessed to killing 140 boys between six and sixteen years old, from October 1992 to April 1999 in Colombia and neighboring countries.^[3] He is suspected of murdering over 300 victims, mostly street children. Garavito was originally sentenced to 1,853 years in prison, but this was later reduced to 22 years, after he led police to many of the bodies of his victims.^[4]^[5] He was scheduled to become eligible for parole in 2023.^[6] He died on October 12, 2023.^[7]
Pedro López	Colombia Peru Ecuador	1969–1980	110	300+	Child-murderer and rapist, known as "The Monster of the Andes". López targeted young girls, between the ages of eight and twelve. Arrested in 1980 and convicted in 1983 of killing three young girls, but claimed to have killed hundreds. Despite being believed to be one of the most prolific serial killers of the twentieth century, he was released in the late 1990s.^[8]
Javed Iqbal	Pakistan	1998–1999	100	100	Child-murderer and rapist, known as "Kukri", Iqbal murdered 100 street children by strangling them and covering up his crimes by dissolving the bodies with acid. He was arrested in December 1999 after sending a letter to a newspaper, and was set to be executed in the manner described by the judge, who stated, "You will be strangled to death in front of the parents whose children you killed" and, "Your body will then be cut into 100 pieces and put in acid, the same way you killed the children."^[9] However, he died in custody before he could be executed.^[10]
Mikhail Popkov	Russia	1992–2010	83	86+	Serial rapist-killer nicknamed "The Werewolf", who was active for two decades in Angarsk, Irkutsk and Vladivostok. After being convicted of 22 murders in 2015, he confessed to an additional 59 murders, of which he was convicted of 56 in 2018.^[11]^[12] In July 2020, Popkov confessed to more killings, bringing the total number of admitted victims to 83. He was convicted of additional two killings in 2021 and another three in 2023.^[13] He was sentenced to life.
Daniel Camargo Barbosa	Colombia Ecuador Brazil (alleged)^[14]	1974–1986	72	180^[14]	Child and woman murderer, believed to have possibly raped and killed over 150 victims, primarily targeting female children, as they were more likely to be virgins. Confessed to killing 72 victims. He strangled young girls in Colombia and was arrested, but he escaped from prison, and started killing in Ecuador. He was rearrested in 1986, and was allegedly incarcerated in the same Ecuadorian prison as 300+ serial killer Pedro López.^{[citation needed]} Camargo was killed in jail by the nephew of one of his victims.^[14]^[15]
Pedro Rodrigues Filho	Brazil	1967–2003	71	100+	Rodrigues Filho claimed to have killed over 100 victims, 47 of them inmates. He also killed his father (who had killed his mother) and ate a piece of his heart. He killed his first two victims at the age of 14. He was first arrested in 1973; he was convicted and sentenced to 128 years, but the maximum one can serve in Brazil is 30 years.^[16] He was released in 2018. He was murdered by two men in 2023.
Kampatimar Shankariya	India	1977–1978	70	70+	Shankariya was an Indian serial killer who used a hammer to kill over 70 men and women between 1978 and 1979. He was hanged in 1979; his last words were, "I have murdered in vain", he declared. "Nobody should become like me."^[17]^[18]^[19]^[20]
Hoshang Amini	Iran	1954–1962	67	67	Known as the "Ghost of the Qanat Wells". Murdered 67 people in the city of Varamin from 1954 to 1962, sometimes aided by accomplices. He earned his nickname by decapitating his victims post-mortem and then dumping their bodies into wells.^[21]
Yang Xinhai	China	1999–2003	67	67	Known as the "Monster Killer". Yang would enter victims' homes at night and kill using axes, meat cleavers, hammers, and shovels. He was executed by gunshot in 2004.^[22]
Abul Djabar	Afghanistan	1970 and earlier	65	300+	Killed 65 men and boys by strangling them with turbans while raping them. Suspected of over 300 murders. Sentenced to death and hanged on October 21, 1970.^[23]
Samuel Little	United States	1970–2005	60	93	Little was convicted of killing three women, but later investigations linked 31 other murders to him. He claimed he killed as many as 93 victims total, three above his initial confession of 90; the FBI later confirmed a total of 60 murders linked to Little. The investigations into his crimes are ongoing.^[24]^[25] Sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on September 25, 2014. Died in prison on December 30, 2020, aged 80.
William Unek	Belgian Congo Tanganyika	1954–1957	57	57	Unek was a police constable who murdered 21 people with an axe in less than two hours before fleeing. Three years later, Unek, armed with rifle and axe, murdered 36 more people in the village of Malampaka before being mortally wounded by police with a smoke bomb that caught fire.^[26]
Mohammed Bijeh	Iran	2002–2004	54	54	Bijeh raped and killed at least 54 male children and teenagers. On November 27, 2004, he was sentenced to be executed. Bijeh said that if he was not arrested, he would kill 100 children. He was executed after being lashed in front of a crowd in 2005.^[27]
Andrei Chikatilo	Soviet Union	1978–1990	53	56	Known as "The Butcher of Rostov", "The Red Ripper" or "The Rostov Ripper". Chikatilo was convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. One man was previously convicted and executed for his first murder. Chikatilo was executed by gunshot in 1994.^[28]
Anatoly Onoprienko	Soviet Union Ukraine	1989–1996	52	52+	Known as "The Beast of Ukraine", "The Terminator", and "Citizen O". Onoprienko was convicted of the murders of nine people in 1989, and 43 people in 1995–1996. He travelled throughout Europe illegally from 1990 to 1995; whether he killed during this time is unknown. He was sentenced to death, and was later commuted to imprisonment for life. He died from heart failure in 2013.^[28]
Florisvaldo de Oliveira	Brazil	1982–1983	50	50+	Known as "Cabo Bruno"; de Oliveira was a former police officer and vigilante who murdered criminals in the outskirts of São Paulo. He was murdered by unknown assailants in 2012.^[29]
Gary Ridgway	United States	1982–1998	49	71–90+	Ridgway was a truck painter who confessed to killing 71 women. He was also known as The "Green River Killer". He almost exclusively targeted sex workers from Seattle. Ridgway was suspected of killing over 90 victims; he confessed to 71, and was convicted of 49.^[30] He was sentenced to life without parole.^[31]
Alexander Pichushkin	Russia	1992–2006	49	60	Pichushkin was also known as the "Chessboard Killer". He was convicted of murdering 49 victims, and suspected of killing 60. He claimed to have murdered 62 people, because he did not know that two of his victims had survived; he stated that his goal was becoming Russia's most prolific serial killer.^[32] He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Wang Qiang	China	1995–2003	45	60+	Wang killed 45 and raped 10 from 1995 to 2003.^[33] He was executed by firing squad in 2005.
Ahmad Suradji	Indonesia	1986–1997	42	42	Suradji was convicted of strangling at least 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers. He was executed by firing squad in 2008.^[34]
Raman Raghav	India	1965–1968	41	41	In the late 1960s, Raghav went on a violent rampage in Mumbai, India. He bludgeoned 41 people to death inside their shelters while they slept. He died of kidney failure in 1995.
Moses Sithole	South Africa	1994–1995	38	76	Known as South Africa's Ted Bundy. Sithole preyed on unemployed women, posing as a businessman and luring his victims with the prospects of a job, before leading them to an isolated place, where he raped, tortured, and murdered them. He was sentenced to 2,410 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 930 years.^[35]
Serhiy Tkach	Soviet Union Ukraine	1984–2005	37	100+	A former Ukrainian police criminal investigator, Tkach suffocated girls aged between eight and eighteen, and performed sexual acts on their bodies after they were dead. He claimed to have killed 100. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and died from heart failure in 2018.^[36]
Gennady Mikhasevich	Soviet Union	1971–1985	36	43–55+	Mikhasevich killed women by strangling them. Besides killing, he also robbed his victims of money and valuable items (that he would sometimes give to his wife as a gift). He was executed by firing squad in 1987.^[37]
Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi	Morocco	1906 and earlier	36	36+	Known as "Marrakesh Arch-Killer"; Mesfewi drugged, mutilated and murdered women; he was executed by immurement (walling) in 1906.
Vera Renczi	Kingdom of Romania Yugoslavia Hungary (alleged)	1920–1930	35	~35	Romanian serial killer nicknamed, "The Black Widow". Renczi was convicted of killing 35 men through arsenic poisoning, but confessed to only killing 32 victims. Renczi is one of the world's most prolific female serial killers. However, there is very little information about Renczi and her crimes, because personal information (criminal history, academic records, etc.) were not cataloged as well as they are today, making some criminologists believe she was a figure of Romanian folklore, rather than an actual person.^[38]
Fernando Hernández Leyva	Mexico	1982–1999	33	137	Hernández Leyva confessed to 100 murders and six kidnappings at the time of his arrest in 1999 (he had been arrested previously in 1982 and 1986, the second time for murder, but escaped from prison), but later retracted, and claimed that he had been beaten by the police and his family threatened in order to force him to confess. He was accused of as many as 137 murders in five southern Mexican states, was convicted of 33 murders, and was sentenced to 50 years in prison. He tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide in prison. If his claim of 100+ victims were true, then Leyva would be Mexico's most prolific documented serial killer.^[39]
John Wayne Gacy	United States	1972–1978	33	34–45+	Gacy is known to have murdered a minimum of 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978, 26 of whom he buried in the crawl space of his Chicago home. He was known as the "Killer Clown", due to the fact he often entertained children at social events dressed in a self devised clown costume. Executed by lethal injection in 1994.^[40]
Ali Asghar Borujerdi	Ottoman Empire Iraq Iran	1907–1934	33	33	Known as "Asghar the Murderer". Borujerdi killed 33 young adults in Iraq and Iran. He was executed by hanging in 1934.^[41]
Vasili Komaroff	Soviet Union	1921–1923	33	33	Known as "The Wolf of Moscow"; Komaroff was a horse trader who killed 33 men. He was executed by firing squad in 1923.
Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour	Egypt	1999–2006	32	32+	Mansour was a gang leader known as "al-Tourbini" ("The Express Train"). He had raped and tortured homeless children, mostly boys aged 10 to 14 years old, aboard the trains between Cairo, Alexandria, Qalyubia, and Beni Sueif. The victims were usually thrown off the moving train when they were dead or in agony; other times, they were thrown into the Nile or buried alive. Mansour was executed in 2010.^[42]
Radik Tagirov	Russia	2011–2012	31	31	Known as the "Volga Maniac". He murdered elderly women in several Russian regions.^[43]

Name	Country	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Notes
Karl Denke	Germany	1900–1924	30	42+	Killed and cannibalized poor travelers and homeless vagrants. Kept a ledger recording his murders with at least 31 names in it (including Vincenz Olivier, his only surviving victim), thus confirming at least 30 victims. But due to the massive amount of human remains found in his apartment, his kill count is suspected by many to exceed 42 victims. Killed himself by hanging in his holding cell before he could be tried.^[44]
Francisco das Chagas Rodrigues de Brito	Brazil	1989–2003	30	42	Serial killer of children, who also sexually abused and mutilated children in Maranhão and Pará; sentenced to 217 years imprisonment.^[45]
Monster of the Mangones	Colombia	1963–1970s	30	38	Unidentified serial killer(s) who kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered at least 30 boys in Cali, Colombia.
Milton Sipalo	Zambia	1980	30	31	Known as "The Lusaka Strangler"; A soldier who raped and murdered women and girls in Lusaka. While awaiting trial, he jumped off of the roof of the police station where he was being interrogated, killing himself.^[46]
Luis Gregorio Ramírez Maestre	Colombia	2010–2012	30	30	Killed motorists in various municipalities before his 2012 capture.^[47] Was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
David Thabo Simelane	Swaziland	2000–2001	28	45	Sexually assaulted women he befriended in forests, stabbing or strangling them afterward; sentenced to death.^[48]
Zhang Jun	China	1993–2000	28	28	Robbed 22 stores in several Chinese provinces, killing 28 people in the process. Executed in 2001.^[49]
Mariam Soulakiotis	Greece	1939–1951	27	177+	Known as "Mother Rasputin"; abbess believed to have murdered wealthy women and children who came into her abbey. The true number of her victims is a matter of debate, but she was found guilty of 177 murders—150 through negligence (fraudulently claiming to offer free tuberculosis treatment when the 'treatment' only consisted of abiding in her high altitude convent) and 27 through starvation. Died in prison in 1954.^[50]^[51]
Cedric Maake	South Africa	1996–1997	27	35+	Known as the "Wemmer Pan Killer" and "Hammer Killer". He killed his victims with different instruments such as guns, rocks, a knife, and a hammer. Authorities attributed the murders to two serial killers because of the inconsistent modus operandi. In some cases he killed his victims with a rock, in others he shot them, and in others he murdered tailors with a hammer. Maake was arrested after Moses Sithole was found guilty of 38 killings and sentenced to 1,340 years in prison.^[52]
Robert Pickton	Canada	1983–2002	26	49	Known as the "Pig Farmer Killer" or the "Butcher", he killed women mostly from the Vancouver Downtown Eastside and would feed the remains to the pigs on his farm. In 2007, he was initially convicted for the deaths of 6 women but was later found guilty of the deaths of 20 other women in 2010; however, he confessed to 49 killings to an undercover police officer. In 2024, Pickton died of injuries received in an attack from another inmate.^[53]
Bruce George Peter Lee	United Kingdom	1973–1979	26	26	Epileptic arsonist who killed people in the city of Hull; sentenced to life imprisonment, but was later institutionalized.^[54]
The Stoneman	India	1985–1989	25	25+	12 homeless people were murdered in their sleep in Bombay between 1985 and 1987, and 13 in Calcutta in 1989—in all cases, by dropping a large rock over their head (an additional victim escaped, but could not identify the attacker). No one was ever charged with any of the murders.^[55]
Juan Corona	United States	1971	25	25+	Corona was convicted of murdering ranch laborers and burying them in orchards. He was sentenced to 25 terms life imprisonment.^[56] Died from natural causes in 2019.
Fritz Haarmann	Germany	1918–1924	24	27+	Also known as the Butcher of Hanover and the Vampire of Hanover, because of his preferred method of killing by biting through his victim's throat, sometimes while sodomizing them. He would then dump the bodies in the nearby river Leine. Believed to have been responsible for the murder of 27 boys and young men, he was convicted, found guilty of 24 murders and executed by guillotine in 1925.^[57]
Béla Kiss	Austria-Hungary	1912–1916	24	24+	Evaded arrest and conviction after the discovery of 24 bodies hidden in large metal drums on his property in 1916. At that time he was serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and deserted when the military was notified of the murders by civilian authorities. His final whereabouts and fate are unknown, as is his final victim count.^[58]
Majid Salek Mohammadi	Iran	1981–1985	24	24	Killed mainly women he considered unfaithful to their husbands, sometimes the children accompanying them too; killed himself before he could be sentenced.^[59]
Yvan Keller	France Germany (suspected) Switzerland (suspected)	1989–2006	23	150	Known as the "Pillow Killer"; killed and robbed old women in France's Alsace region, but also confessed to up to 150 murders, including in Germany and Switzerland; killed himself before trial.^[60]
Ronald Dominique	United States	1997–2006	23	23+	Louisianian serial killer, known locally as the Bayou Strangler and murdered victims in the Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish, Iberville Parish and Jefferson Parish. Sentenced to eight life terms.^[61]
Juan Fernando Hermosa	Ecuador	1991–1992	23	23	Known as "Niño del Terror"; youth gang leader who murdered mostly taxi drivers and homosexuals in Quito; murdered on his 20th birthday by unknown assailants.^[62]
Gerald Stano	United States	1969–1980	22	88	Confessed to killing 41 women, mostly in Florida and New Jersey. He was only convicted in 22 cases, and is suspected in the deaths of up to 88 victims.^[63] Some people have suggested that Stano was a serial confessor.^[64]
Earle Nelson	United States Canada	1926–1927	22	25	Necrophiliac who primarily targeted boarding house landladies on the US West Coast during 1926; he was also known as "Gorilla Killer" or "the Dark Strangler". Captured after two murders in a small (now ghost) town in southern Manitoba. Found guilty, hanged by Canadian authorities in January 1928.^[65]
Mikhail Novosyolov	Soviet Union Russia Tajikistan	1977–1995	22	22	Known as the "Necrophile Rebel"; killed his victims with blows from heavy objects, then had sexual intercourse with their corpses; sentenced to civil commitment.^[66]
Manuel Octavio Bermúdez	Colombia	1999–2003	21	50+	Colombian child rapist and serial killer. Known as "El Monstruo de los Cañaduzales" (The Monster of the Cane Fields). He confessed to killing 21 children in remote areas of Colombia.^[67] Sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Patrick Kearney	United States	1965–1977	21	43+	Would pick up young male hitch-hikers or young men from gay bars near Redondo Beach, California, and kill them.^[68] Sentenced to imprisonment for life.
William Bonin	United States	1979–1980	21	36+	Bonin and three accomplices are known to have murdered a minimum of 21 youths aged between 12 and 19 in and around Los Angeles. As the majority of his victims were discarded alongside various southern California freeways, Bonin became known as the Freeway Killer. Convicted of 14 of the freeway murders, he was executed by lethal injection in 1996.^[69]
Vasile Tcaciuc	Romania	1917–1935	21	26+	Romanian man who lured victims and then murdered them with an axe. He was arrested in 1935 after a dog found a dead body in his house. He confessed to having committed at least 26 murders. He was shot dead by a policeman while trying to escape from prison.^[70]
Yoo Young-chul	South Korea	2003–2004	21	26	Used a hammer to murder mostly older victims, until his focus shifted to the decapitation and mutilation of escorts after being dumped by a girlfriend who worked in that profession.^[71] Was sentenced to death and currently incarcerated.^[72]^[73]
Francisco Guerrero Pérez	Mexico	1880–1908	21	21	Known as "El Chaquero"; the first captured serial killer in Mexico, who killed sex workers in Mexico City; died in 1910 from cerebral thromboembolism and another, unspecified cause.^[74]
Ted Bundy	United States	1974–1978	20	35–100+	Bundy was an American serial killer known for his charisma and good looks. He officially confessed to 30 homicides, but had confessed to killing 35–36 women in the past, and some estimates run upwards of 100 or more. He was infamous for escaping from prison twice and murdering multiple victims in one day; sometimes abducting women from the same location within hours of one another.^[75] He was executed by electric chair in 1989.^[76]^[77]
Abdullah Shah	Afghanistan	1990s	20	20+	Killed travelers on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad serving under Zardad Khan. Also killed his wife. Executed on April 20, 2004.^[78]
Mohan Kumar	India	2005–2009	20	20	Lured female victims with promises of marriage and gave them cyanide, claiming they were contraceptive pills, Sentenced to death in 2013.
Bulelani Mabhayi	South Africa	2007–2012	20	20	Known as the "Monster of Thuleni"; killed 20 women and children from 2007 to 2012. Sentenced to 25 life sentences on September 3, 2013.
Larry Eyler	United States	1982–1984	19	23+	Known as "The Interstate Killer"; sentenced to death for the 1984 murder and dismemberment of 15-year-old Daniel Bridges. He confessed to other homicides of young men and boys in five separate states. Died of AIDS complications in 1994.^[79]
Cape Town Prostitute Killer	South Africa	1992–1996	19	20	Unidentified serial killer who, on rainy nights, picked up sex workers and domestic workers in his vehicle, strangled them in parking lots, and dumped their bodies in rural, preselected spots.^[80]
"El Psicópata"	Costa Rica	1986–1996	19	19+	("The Psychopath") Unidentified serial killer who killed 19 people with an M3 submachine gun in three Costa Rican towns, always south of the Florencio del Castillo Highway.^[81]
Sergei Ryakhovsky	Soviet Union Russia	1988–1993	19	19+	Known as the Balashikha Ripper, he was convicted for the murders of at least 19 victims. Died from tuberculosis in 2005.^[82]
Yevgeny Chuplinsky	Russia	1998–2006	19	19+	Known as the "Novosibirsk Maniac"; killed sex workers in Novosibirsk; despite extensive police search and the capture of another serial killer, he was only arrested in 2016; sentenced to life imprisonment.^[83]
M. Jaishankar	India	2008–2011	19	19+	Accused of killing at least 19 women. Charged with 13 murders, he escaped during a trial transport. Killed eight more people in two months before he was recaptured. Sentenced to 27 years. Killed himself by slashing his wrists with a shaving blade in prison on 27 February 2018.^[84]
Ansis Kaupēns	Latvia	1920–1926	19	19	Army deserter who committed 30 robberies and killed 19 people; one of the most infamous Latvian criminals; executed by hanging in 1927.^[85]
Vadim Ershov	Russia	1992–1995	19	19	Known as the "Krasnoyarsk Beast"; committed 70 crimes around the Krasnoyarsk area, including 19 murders and eight attempted murders; sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment.^[86]
Velaphi Ndlangamandla	South Africa	1998	19	19	Known as "The Saloon Killer"; robber who murdered people around Mpumalanga in his crime spree; sentenced to 137 years imprisonment.^[87]
Valery Kopytov	Russia	2000–2004	19	19	Known as "The Barnaul Chikatilo"; homeless man who killed other homeless people in Altai Krai.^[88]
Randall Woodfield	United States	1979–1981	18	44	Known as "The I-5 Killer" and "The I-5 Bandit." Suspected of as many as 44 murders.^[89] Sentenced to imprisonment for life.
Yavuz Yapıcıoğlu	Turkey	1994–2002	18	40	Killed in various cities of Turkey. 18 murders proven and accused of more than 40 by eyewitnesses and relatives.^[90] Was sentenced to 74 years in prison.
Paul John Knowles	United States	1974	18	35+	Killed 18 people in various states in 1974. Claimed 35 murders. Known as the "Casanova Killer"; shot dead by FBI agents.^[91]
Thierry Paulin	France	1984–1987	18	21	Known as "The monster of Montmartre". Killed and robbed elderly women. Died of AIDS in 1989 in prison before trial.^[92]
Richard Nyauza	South Africa	2002–2006	18	19	Known as "The Quarry Murderer"; bludgeoned, beat, strangled, and stabbed 16 women and two unborn children to death and left their bodies in or around a quarry. Given 16 life sentences.^[93]
Umesh Reddy	India	1996–2002	18	18+	Confessed to 18 rapes and murders. Sentenced to death.^[94]
Christopher Mhlengwa Zikode	South Africa	1994–1995	18	18+	Known as "Donnybrook Serial Killer" murdered 18 people in Donnybrook, KwaZulu Natal from 1994 to 1995.^[95] Was given 140 years (5 life sentences).
Kotakethana murders	Sri Lanka	2008–2015	18	18+	18 mysterious murders of women in the Rathnapura district of Sri Lanka. One middle age man suspect was arrested in 2015 and his DNA matched with six murders. Nine other cases remain unsolved.^[96]^[97]
Asande Baninzi	South Africa	2001	18	18	Killed 18 people in three months, including a family of four; given 19 life sentences and 189 years of imprisonment.^[98]
Vladimir Mirgorod	Russia	2002–2004	18	18	Known as "The Strangler"; raped and strangle women in Moscow, also killing one of the victims' son; sentenced to life imprisonment.^[99]
Richard Cottingham	United States	1967–1980	17	85–100	Killer operating in New York and New Jersey who often targeted sex workers and utilized mutilation as well as dismemberment in his killings. Known as the "Torso Killer", with 17 confirmed homicide victims^[100] including nine convictions and a further eight official confessions. He has made unsubstantiated claims of up to a hundred victims.^[101]
Huang Yong	China	2001–2003	17	25	Lured and murdered 17 teenage boys, although he is suspected of 25 murders between September 2001 and 2003.^[102] Executed by firing squad in 2003.
Pedro Pablo Nakada Ludeña	Peru	2005–2006	17	25	Known as "El Apóstol de la Muerte" ("The Apostle of Death"). Convicted of 17 murders and claimed 25. Sentenced to 35 years in prison.^[103]
Darbara Singh	India	2004	17	23	Sexually assaulted and then murdered children of non-Punjabi immigrants; died in 2018 from an illness while serving a life sentence.^[104]
Robert Hansen	United States	1971–1983	17	21	Sex workers he kidnapped were released into the Alaskan wilderness for him to hunt down like animals. Based on discovered remains, police suspect him of six murders in addition to the 17 for which he was convicted. Sentenced to 461 years plus life. Died from unspecified health problems in 2014.^[105]
Sergei Dovzhenko	Ukraine	1992–2002	17	19	Killed people because they were "mocking" him; sentenced to life imprisonment.^[106]
Donato Bilancia	Italy	1997–1998	17	17	Burglar who murdered 17 people, mainly sex workers, between 1997 and 1998, during a six-month period. Known as the "Prostitutes Killer" and the "Liguria Monster". Sentenced to imprisonment for life,^[107] he died due to COVID-19 in 2020.^[108]
Irina Gaidamachuk	Russia	2002–2010	17	17	Known as "Satan in a skirt". Killed 17 elderly women between 2002 and 2010. Sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Chen Fuzhao	China	2003	17	17	Alleged Falun Gong fanatic who fatally poisoned 17 people in 2003.^[109]
Randy Steven Kraft	United States	1971–1983	16	67	Convicted of 16 counts of murder but left a cryptic "score card" referring to at least 65 victims. May have had an accomplice.^[110] Sentenced to death.
Juana Barraza	Mexico	Late 1990s–2006	16	49	Mexican female wrestler who bludgeoned or strangled elderly women to rob them. Sentenced to 759 years.
Michel Fourniret	France Belgium	1987–2001	16	19	Known as the Ogre or Beast of Ardennes. He was caught after a failed kidnapping in 2003.^[111] Sentenced to life and died of respiratory problems while in prison in 2021.
Sipho Agmatir Thwala	South Africa	1996–1997	16	19	Nicknamed the Phoenix Strangler after the area in which he committed his crimes; he raped and strangled 19 women; arrested, he was found guilty of 16 murders and sentenced to life.^[112]
Saeed Hanaei	Iran	2000–2001	16	19	Confessed to luring 16 sex workers to his home and killing them in an attempt to "cleanse" the city of Mashhad. His actions were dubbed "The Spider Murders". Executed by hanging in 2002.^[113]
Maina Ramulu	India	2003–2020	16	18	Convicted of murdering 16 women between 2003 and 2013 during three separate murder sprees. He was released from prison in 2020, and allegedly murdered two more women.^[114]
Jeffrey Dahmer	United States	1978–1991	16	17	Dahmer ate some of his victims and kept their body parts in his freezer. Was sentenced to life imprisonment; murdered in prison in 1994.
José Antonio Rodríguez Vega	Spain	1987–1988	16	16+	Nicknamed El Mataviejas (The Old Lady Killer), he raped and killed at least 16 elderly women, aged from 61 to 93 years old, in and around Santander, Cantabria. He went unrecognized for over a year because he moved his victims into their beds after they were killed; no autopsies were made and the deaths were attributed to natural causes. He also took trophies from his victims that he held in a particular room of his home; about 10 percent of these trophies remained unclaimed, implying the existence of other victims.^[115] He was stabbed to death by two inmates while incarcerated in 2002.
Carroll Cole	United States	1948–1980	16	16	Killed 16 people in California, Nevada, and Texas.^[116] Executed by lethal injection in 1985.
Elias Xitavhudzi	South Africa	1950s	16	16	Nicknamed Panga man for his use of a machete (locally known as a "panga"). He stabbed and robbed his victims between 1953 and 1959; arrested, he was executed by hanging in 1960.^[117]
Charles Ray Hatcher	United States	1969–1982	16	16	A habitual criminal, confessed to the rape and murder of over 20 young and adolescent males. Escaped from prison several times and was declared a "manipulative institutionalized sociopath".^[118] Sentenced to life; killed himself by hanging himself in prison in 1984.
Yuri Ivanov	Soviet Union	1974–1987	16	16	Known as the "Ust-Kamenogorsk Maniac"; Kazakhstani rapist who killed girls and women who spoke negatively of men; executed 1987.^[119]
Robert Lee Yates	United States	1975–1998	16	16	Killed sex workers in the "Skid Row" area of E. Sprague Avenue in Spokane, Washington. Sentenced to 408 years in prison and two death sentences.^[120]
Farid Baghlani	Iran	2004–2008	16	16	Known as the "Cyclist killer"; murdered 15 women and 1 boy. Executed by hanging on November 13, 2010.^[121]
Jimmy Maketta	South Africa	2005	16	16	Pleaded guilty to and convicted of 16 murders and 19 rapes committed over the nine-month period of April to December 2005.^[122]
Jack Mogale	South Africa	2008–2009	16	16	Raped and strangled women in the Donnybrook area. Convicted of 16 murders and 19 rapes, nine kidnappings, robbery and assault.^[123]
Donald Henry Gaskins	United States	1953–1982	15	100+	Known as "The Meanest Man in America", Gaskins was convicted of nine murders committed in South Carolina between 1973 and 1975. He was suspected of 31 murders. Two victims had been murdered while Gaskins had been incarcerated—one while Gaskins had been on death row. Later claimed on death row that he had murdered between 100 and 110 victims. Executed by electric chair in 1991.
Ravinder Kumar	India	2008–2015	15	30+	Serial rapist who killed children of poor families.^[124]
Atlanta Ripper	United States	1911	15	21	Unidentified serial killer(s) who killed at least 15 Atlanta women in 1911, possibly as many as 21 in total.^[125]
Ángel Maturino Reséndiz	United States Mexico	1986–1999	15	18	Known as the "Railroad Killer" because his killings were committed near the railroad tracks he used to traverse the country. He was charged with and/or confessed to 15 murders occurring from 1986 to 1999 in Texas, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, and Kentucky. He was also suspected in a 1997 California murder case and claimed two additional killings he refused to elaborate on. Executed by lethal injection in 2006.^[126]
Chester Turner	United States	1987–1998	15	15+	Convicted of killing 15 people in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s. Sentenced to death.^[127]
Alexander Labutkin	Soviet Union	1933–1935	15	15	Known as the "One-Armed Bandit"; killed people in the forest near the Prigorodny settlement using a revolver; executed 1935.^[128]
Florencio Fernández	Argentina	1950s	15	15	Stalked his victims, then would beat and bite them while they were asleep. Died from natural causes a few years after his 1960 arrest.
Elifasi Msomi	South Africa	1953–1956	15	15	Killed his victims with an axe or a knife in the 1950s; executed by hanging in 1956.^[129]
Abdullah Aksoy	Turkey	1962–1967	15	15	Known as "The Monster of Çumra"; killed fifteen men in Çumra from 1962 to 1967 after having sexual intercourse with them, then buried their bodies in his home; committed suicide in prison before being tried.^[130]^[131]
Maurizio Minghella	Italy	1978–2001	15	15	Killed five sex workers; imprisoned and released, after which he killed 10 more; sentenced to life imprisonment.^[132]
Bai Baoshan	China	1983–1997	15	15	Robber who killed 15 people while robbing several police stations; executed by gunshot in 1998.
Lee Choon-jae	South Korea	1986–1994	15	15	Also known as the Hwaseong serial murders. Most of the victims were bound, gagged, and strangled to death with their own clothes. It sparked the largest criminal case in South Korea with two million officers mobilized and over 21,000 suspects investigated.^[133] A suspect was identified in 2019, but he could not be prosecuted due to the statute of limitations. He later confessed to killing 15 people, in addition to the murder of his sister-in-law.

Name	Country	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Notes
Harold Shipman	United Kingdom	1975–1998	218	250^[402]	Convicted of 15 murders and found to be responsible for the deaths of 218 patients identified by inquiry, but is believed to have killed around 250 people.^[403]^[404] He injected diamorphine into his patients and then falsified the medical records, reporting that his patient had been in poor health. Hanged himself in prison in 2004.
Steven Massof	United States	2003–2008	100+		Massof, who worked at Kermit Gosnell's abortion clinic, testified that he snipped the spines of more than 100 babies after seeing them show signs of life.^[405]^[406]
Niels Högel	Germany	1999–2005	85+	300^[407]	Nurse who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of more than 85 people.^[408]^[409] In November 2017, German prosecutors said that the number of victims was at least 106,^[410] with Högel admitting, in October 2018, to murdering 100 patients.^[14] By May 2019, he was believed to be the most prolific serial killer in peacetime Germany with up to 300 victims over fifteen years.^[407]
Baba Anujka	Kingdom of Yugoslavia	c. 1890s–1928	50	150	Anujka was an accomplished amateur chemist from the village of Vladimirovac, Yugoslavia (modern day Serbia). She poisoned at least 50 people and possibly as many as 150 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1929 but released after eight years due to old age.^[411]
Kermit Gosnell	United States	1989?–2010	48+	200+^[412]^[413]	Kermit Gosnell is an American serial-killer and former physician who ran an abortion clinic known as the "House of Horrors." Authorities discovered the remains of at least 47 late-term aborted children stored in bags or cartons, several of which appeared to be killed after birth. He was convicted in 2011 for 3 counts of first-degree murder of babies he delivered alive and then severed the spinal cords of, 1 count of manslaughter for the death of a woman he performed an abortion on, and over 200 counts of other abortion-related laws. Testimony indicated hundreds of similar procedures carried out by Gosnell and his staff.^[414]
Louay Omar Mohammed al-Taei	Iraq	2005–2006	43		Medical doctor found to have killed 43 wounded policemen, soldiers and officials in Kirkuk; was a member of an insurgent cell.^[415]
Donald Harvey	United States	1970–1987	37	57–87	Self-professed Angel of Death. Worked as an orderly in Cincinnati-area hospitals and preyed on his patients. Claimed to have killed 87 patients starting at age 18. Active 1970–1987. Sentenced to 28 life sentences in Ohio.^[416]
Jane Toppan	United States	1885–1901	31		Nurse that confessed to poisoning 31 patients. Found not guilty by reason of insanity and interned in a mental institution until her death in 1938.^[417]
Charles Cullen	United States	1988–2003	29	400+	Nurse in New Jersey and Pennsylvania who murdered at least 29 patients between 1988 and 2003, but experts believe the number could be as high as 400. Cullen has admitted to more murders, which authorities believe are likely, but the murders cannot be verified due to lack of records.^[418]
Stephan Letter	Germany	2003–2004	29	29+	Nurse who killed 29 patients; sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006.^[419]
Anders Hansson	Sweden	1978–1979	27		A Nurse Aide who poisoned victims with gevisol and ivisol. His actions were called "The Hospital Murders" (Swedish: Sjukhusmorden).^[420]
Marcel Petiot	France	1926–1944	26	63	Active 1926 and from 1942 to 1944. Petiot is suspected of having killed up to 63 in total. Executed in 1946.^[421]
Arnfinn Nesset	Norway	1983 and earlier	22	27–138+	Norwegian nurse and most prolific known serial killer in Scandinavian history, convicted in 1983 of poisoning at least 22 patients with Curacit; however he initially confessed to 27 murders; later he retracted his confessions and claimed he had killed 138 patients. Was released from prison in 2004 after serving 21 years, the maximum punishment possible by Norwegian law.^[422]
Roger Andermatt	Switzerland	1995–2001	22	22	Known as the "Death-Keeper of Lucerne"; nurse who killed 22 patients; most prolific Swiss serial killer in history; sentenced to life imprisonment.^[423]
Linda Hazzard	United States	1908–1912	15	17	Quack doctor and swindler who manipulated her patients into fasting until they starved themselves to death. 17 deaths were attributed to this practice, with evidence of 15 being presented at her trial. She was pardoned after serving two years imprisonment with hard labour and later starved herself to death attempting her own fasting cure.
Maxim Petrov	Russia	2000–2002	12	19	Doctor who killed his patients in St. Petersburg. Suspected of 19 murders.^[424]
Joan Vila Dilmé	Spain	2009–2010	11	15^[425]	Nursing home worker who fatally poisoned 11 elderly residents or more in Olot. In the trial he claimed they were mercy kills intended to spare the victims of further suffering, although three of them were administered caustic cleaning materials that caused severe burns and a long agony.^[426]
Vickie Dawn Jackson	United States	2000–2001	10	20	Vocational nurse at Nocona General Hospital who murdered patients who irritated her with injections of Mivacron. She was convicted of 10 murders, although law enforcement suspected her in around 20 suspicious deaths.
Ann Arbor Hospital Killer	United States	1975	10	10	Poisonings of 10 patients at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in 1975. Filipino nurses Filipina Narciso and Leonora Perez were tried for the crimes.^[427]
Ludivine Chambet	France	2012–2013	10	10	Known as "The Poisoner of Chambéry"; nurse's aide who poisoned elderly patients; sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.^[428]
Frederick Mors	United States	1914–1915	8	8+	Born Carl Menarik, Austrian who killed 8 elderly patients by poisoning in New York. Sent to an asylum and escaped. Never caught.
Elizabeth Wettlaufer	Canada	2007–2018	8	8	Confessed to murdering eight senior citizens and attempting to murder six others in southwestern Ontario.^[429] With a total of fourteen victims either killed or injured by her actions, she is described as one of the worst serial killers in Canadian history.^[430]
Petr Zelenka	Czech Republic	2006	7	21^[431]	Killed his victims with a lethal injection of heparin from May to September 2006. Ten people survived his murder attempt. Suspected of up to 14 additional murders.
Marianne Nölle	Germany	1984–1992	7	17	Nurse who was convicted of killing seven patients between 1984 and 1992; suspected of killing 17; sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993.^[432]
Lucy Letby	United Kingdom	2015–2016	7	7	Nurse convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder another six while working at Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, England.^[433] Following her conviction, a number of doubts about the reliability of the evidence have been raised, with Letby continuing to maintain her innocence.
Orville Lynn Majors	United States	1993–1995	6	130	LPN in Vermillion County Ind., Preyed on elderly patients—thought to have killed many of them with injections of potassium chloride. Sentenced to 360 years in Indiana.^[434]
Efren Saldivar	United States	1989–1997	6	50+	Respiratory therapist who killed six patients, possibly as many as 120.^[435]
Christine Malèvre	France	1998 and earlier	6	30	Nurse who killed terminally ill patients claiming that they had asked her to help them die, something denied by their families. Sentenced to 12 years in prison for six murders and suspect of 30.^[436]
Antoinette Scieri	France	1924–1925	6	12+	Nurse who poisoned her elderly patients. Death sentence was commuted to life in prison and she died in prison.^[437]
Ahmad Ahmadi	Imperial State of Iran	1931–1944	6		Responsible for killing political prisoners at Qasr prison during the reign of Reza Shah.
Kristen Gilbert	United States	1990–1996	5	70+	Nurse at a Massachusetts Veterans Medical Center who injected male patients with epinephrine, causing heart attacks. Sentenced to life without parole.^[438]
Frans Hooijmaijers	Netherlands	1970–1975	5	259	Nurse who was convicted for killing five patients at a hospital in Kerkrade, the Netherlands from 1970 to 1975, but was suspected to have killed approximately 259 people.
Miyuki Ishikawa	Japan	1946–1948	5	84	Killed 84 newborn children at maximum. As a midwife, she killed infants born to parents unwilling to care for them during the prohibition of abortion in Japan.^[439] Arrested in 1948, and sentenced to four years imprisonment in 1953 as final decision.^[440]
Amy Archer-Gilligan	United States	1910–1917	5	48+	A nursing home proprietor believed to have poisoned as many as 60 patients from her homes and her second husband. Charged with five murders originally, this was lowered to just one following her admission of guilt, and was found guilty of second degree murder. Died in a mental hospital in 1962.^[441]
Sonya Caleffi	Italy	2003–2004	5	18	Nurse who poisoned terminally-ill patients; sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.^[442]
Aino Nykopp-Koski	Finland	2004–2009	5		Nurse who killed five elderly patients using sedatives and opiates in Finland.
Kimberly Clark Saenz	United States	2008	5		Killed five patients by using syringes to inject bleach into their dialysis lines.
Michael Swango	United States Zimbabwe	1981–1997	4	35–60+	Medical Doctor who killed patients.^[443]
Edson Izidoro Guimarães	Brazil	1999 and earlier	4	131	Nurse who injected patients with potassium chloride or removed their oxygen mask. Confessed to five murders which he claimed to be mercy killings and was convicted of four in 2000; sentenced to 76 years in prison. He may have killed as many as 131 patients for money, as he was paid $60 for informing local funeral homes of a patient's death so that they could contact the deceased's relatives first.^[444]
Richard Angelo	United States	1987	4	25	Known as "The Angel of Death". New York nurse convicted of four murders, linked to six other deaths. Suspected of killing up to 25 people.^[445]
Colin Norris	United Kingdom	2002	4	18	Convicted of murdering four elderly women and attempting to murder another in two Leeds hospitals during 2002 while working as a nurse. He had injected the women, who were only in hospital due to broken hips, with massive overdoses of insulin. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 30 years in 2008.^[446]
Beverley Allitt	United Kingdom	1991	4		Convicted of murdering four children and attacking another six in the Lincolnshire hospital where she worked as a nurse. Given 13 life sentences.^[447]
Abraao Jose Bueno	Brazil	2005	4		Nurse who injected young children with sedatives until they stopped breathing. He would then alert doctors in an attempt to earn the respect of his colleagues for being the first one to notice that something was wrong. Convicted of 4 deaths and 4 more murder attempts to 110 years in prison.
Andrés Ulises Castillo Villarreal	Mexico	2009–2015	3	12+	Known as "The Chihuahua Ripper"; drugged, raped and then killed men in Chihuahua; sentenced to 120 years imprisonment.^[448]
Elfriede Blauensteiner	Austria	1981–1995	3	10+	Known as "The Black Widow"; poisoned people for material gain; died from a brain tumor in 2003.^[449]
Genene Jones	United States	1970–1982	2	60	Nurse convicted of murdering two infants via lethal injection. Accused of up to 60 murders.
Benjamin Geen	United Kingdom	2003–2004	2	12	Nurse convicted in 2006 of murdering two patients and causing grievous bodily harm to another 15 at Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire between 2003 and 2004.^[450] Induced illness in the patients with overdoses of drugs, in order to enjoy the 'thrill' of resuscitating them.^[451] Given 17 life sentences and ordered to serve at least 30 years imprisonment.^[452] 9 other cases were originally investigated.^[451]
Marie Fikáčková	Czechoslovakia	1957–1960	2	10+	Nurse who was executed by hanging in 1961 for murdering babies.
Victorino Chua	United Kingdom	2011	2	5	Poisoned several patients at Stepping Hill Hospital with insulin.
Christopher Duntsch	United States	2011–2013	2		Neurosurgeon known as "Dr. Death"; injured 33 out of 38 patients in two years resulting in two deaths.
Felícitas Sánchez Aguillón	Mexico	1930–1941	1	50+	Known as "The Ogress of Roma neighborhood"; Nurse, midwife and baby farmer responsible for an unknown number of murders number during the 1930s, maybe 50 victims, in Mexico City.
Robert George Clements	United Kingdom	1920–1947	1	4	Believed to have murdered his four wives, all of whom died young and had their death certificates signed by Clements himself. Clements committed suicide with a morphine overdose when police came to arrest him for the murder of his fourth wife, who had died of the same cause.

Name	Country	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Notes
Philadelphia poison ring	United States	1931–1938	114		Gang of 16 that poisoned Italian immigrants with arsenic in order to collect their life insurance. The leaders, cousins Herman and Paul Petrillo, were executed in the electric chair in 1941 while the rest were given life sentences.^[453]
Abboud and Khajawa	Iraq	?–1917	100+		Married couple who resorted to cannibalism during a famine in Mosul. They would use their young son to lure children into their home before beating them to death, dismembering them and eating their remains or serving them to members of the public at their restaurant. They also killed and ate one adult neighbour but found that her body contained too much fat.^[454]
Delfina and María de Jesús González	Mexico	1955–1964	91+		Two sisters who ran a brothel in Mexico, hired numerous sex workers and murdered at least 80 of them after they were deemed useless during the span of 10 years. They also killed 11 men. Probably the work of four of the sisters, sentenced to 40 years in prison. Body count varies due to the combined work of the sisters being impossible to assign to them individually.^[28]
Peng Miaoji, Ding Yunjia and Su Xiaoping	China	1998–1999	77	84	Fleeing to Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Henan provinces and 21 provinces and cities 33 administrative villages; during 38 burglaries, killed 77 people, seriously injured three others.^[455]^[456]
David Avendaño Ballina and his followers	Mexico	1997–2007	70	70	Sex servant gang who robbed and then poisoned their clients; the leader Ballina was arrested in 2008.^[457]
Hassan Orangi and Abbas Ali Zarifian	Iran	1945–1951	62		Raped and murdered 62 women in Mashhad from 1945 to 1951. After his arrest, Orangi was tried, convicted, sentenced to death and later executed, while Zarifian was sentenced to 15 years for his role in the crimes.
Angel Makers of Nagyrév	Hungary	1911–1929	50	300+	26 women who poisoned their husbands (sometimes also their parents, lovers and children) with arsenic under the guidance of midwife Júlia Fazekas and her accomplice, Susi Oláh.^[458]
Long Zhimin and Yan Shuxia	China	1983–1985	48	48+	Shaanxi Province Wang Shou villagers Long Zhimin and Yan Shuxia in the home has killed 48 people.^[459]
Bian Kuang, Fu Xinyuan and Luo Lianshun	China	2001–2002	41		Manufacturing 51 cases of murder, robbery, rape, killing 41 people. Bian Kuang personally killed 39 people.^[460]
Ivanova and Olga Tamarin	Russia	1909	40	130	A mother and daughter who used accomplices to lure victims to their home. Tortured, murdered, and cannibalized at least 40 people before they were apprehended.^[461]
Ryno-Skachevsky gang	Russia	2006–2007	37		Racist skinhead gang, led by Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, who killed people from non-European ethnicities or backgrounds; both sentenced to 10 years of penal labour.^[462]
Gang of Amazons	Russia	2003–2013	30		Family of robbers and serial killers, led by the parents Inessa Tarverdiyeva and Roman Podkopaev.^[463]
Dean Corll, David Owen Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley	United States	1970–1973	29	30+	Corll, known as "The Candy Man", killed at least 29 teenage boys and young men in Houston between 1970 and 1973. Corll was then shot and killed by one of the two teenage accomplices he recruited to assist him in the abductions of the victims on 8 August 1973. This accomplice, Elmer Wayne Henley, informed the police of the trio's murders the same day Corll was murdered.^[464]^[465]^[466]
Brabant killers	Belgium France	1982–1985	28	40+	Gang made up by at least three extremely violent robbers, none of whom was ever identified or apprehended. Their bloodlust increased dramatically in their last year of activity, when they began shooting passersby before a robbery, including children, for no seeming reason. Some have theorized links to Operation Gladio.^[467]
Adolfo Constanzo and Sara Aldrete	Mexico	1986–1989	25+		"The Godparents of Matamoros". Leader and second-in-command of a drug-smuggling cult that abducted men to perform human sacrifices.^[468]
Shankill Butchers	United Kingdom	1975–1982	23	23+	Ulster Loyalist gang led by Lenny Murphy, who killed people in sectarian attacks.^[469]
Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuk	Ukraine	2007	21		"The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs". A pair of 19-year-olds who, over the course of less than a month, attacked and murdered passersby while out on walks. They recorded videos of some of the murders, including one which subsequently leaked to the Internet.^[470]
Marcelo de Jesus Silva and his death squad	Brazil	?–2010	20+		Brazilian man convicted of 20 counts of murder, robbery, drug trafficking and death squad. As he was only 1.28m tall, he was nicknamed Chucky and Pigmeu. Murdered in 2010 by rivals traffickers.
Wang Zongfang and Wang Zongwei	China	1983	19		Killed soldiers using various arms in three provinces. Executed in 1983.^[471]
Anísio Ferreira de Sousa and followers	Brazil	1989–1992	19		Satanic ring that abducted, mutilated and sacrificed children in Altamira, Brazil. The leader, Ferreira de Sousa, was convicted to 77 years in prison for four murders and two attempted murders.^[472]
Ripper Crew	United States	1981–1982	18		Abducted women, mostly sex workers, then raped, tortured and killed them in Chicago, Illinois.^[473]
John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo	United States	2002	17		Killed seventeen people from February to September 2002 and 10 in the Beltway sniper attacks of October 2002. Muhammad was executed in 2009, while Malvo received life imprisonment.
Death Angels	United States	1973–1974	16	73	Four African-Americans who killed at least 16 white people and injured between eight and 10 in San Francisco (Zebra murders).^[474]
Vladyslav Volkovich and Volodymyr Kondratenko	Ukraine	1991–1997	16	20+	"The Nighttime Killers". Murdered homeless men and lone drivers with a variety of weapons.^[475]
Lainz Angels of Death	Austria	1983–1989	15	49–200+	Known as the "Lainz Angels of Death"; Waltraud Wagner, Irene Leidolf, Stephanija Mayer, and Maria Gruber were nurses at the Lainz General Hospital in Vienna who admitted to murdering 49 patients.^[476]
The Cleaners	Russia	2014–2015	15	15+	Neo-Nazi gang, led by Pavel Voitov and Elena Lobacheva, who murdered alcoholic tramps and beggars; Voitov sentenced to life imprisonment and Lobacheva to 13 years in a penal colony.^[477]
José Miculax Bux and Mariano Macú Miculax	Guatemala	1946	15		Cousins who killed 15 boys in 1946.
Fred West and Rosemary West	United Kingdom	1967–1987	12	30	Mainly targeted young women but were also found guilty of murdering two of their own daughters. Also found guilty of raping another daughter. Buried the victims around their house and local area of Gloucester. Shortly before he killed himself in 1995, Fred West said there were more victims.^[478] At one point he confessed to killing up to 30.^[479]
Briley Brothers	United States	1971–1979	12		Three brothers and an accomplice responsible for 12 murders in the 1970s in Richmond, Virginia.^[480]
John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner and James Spyridon Vlassakis	Australia	1992–1999	12		The bodies of eight victims were found in plastic barrels in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, South Australia. Bunting was found guilty of 11 murders, Wagner pleaded guilty to three and was convicted of a further seven murders.^[481]
Mailoni Brothers	Zambia	2007–2013	12		Three brothers who killed at least 12 people from 2007 to 2013. Killed by Zambia Army Commandos in 2013.^[482]
Leonard Lake and Charles Ng	United States	1982–1985	11	25	Abducted women, used them as sex slaves, and then murdered them, together with any men, women, and children who got in their way. Lake killed himself upon arrest, but Ng was later convicted of killing 11 people. Between 1982 and 1985, Lake and Ng were believed to have abducted and killed as many as 25 victims, as evidenced by human remains found on Lake's California ranch.^[483]
Bloody Benders	United States	1871–1873	11	20	The Bender family, more well known as the Bloody Benders, were a family of serial killers in Labette County, Kansas, United States, from May 1871 to December 1872. Estimates report that the Benders killed at least a dozen travelers, and perhaps as many as twenty before they were discovered. The family's fate remains unknown, with theories ranging from a lynching to a successful escape.
Shen Changyin and Shen Changping	China	1999–2004	11		Found guilty of the murders of 11 sex workers.^[484] They were executed in 2006.^{[citation needed]}
Polatbay Berdaliyev and Abduseit Ormanov	Uzbekistan Kazakhstan	2011–2012	11		Raped, robbed and murdered women along desolate roads; both sentenced to life imprisonment in both countries.^[485]
Wolfgang Abel and Marco Furlan	Italy West Germany Netherlands	1977–1984	10	27	The victims, seemingly chosen at random and killed by different methods, were found next to letters written in Italian, signed "Ludwig" and containing Nazi imagery, that gave a reason for why the murder had been committed. Abel and Furlan were arrested in Castiglione delle Stiviere while dousing a crowded discothèque with gasoline and sentenced in 1987 to 30 years in prison for all crimes (later reduced to 27).^[486]
Juan Carlos Hernández and Patricia Martínez	Mexico	2012–2018	10	20	Known as the "Monsters of Ecatepec"; couple who raped, murdered and cannibalized women.^[487]
Hillside Stranglers	United States	1977–1979	10	10	Initially believed to be one person, two perpetrators were eventually discovered to be cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono Jr. Convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing and murdering 10 women and girls ranging in age from 12 to 28.
Joshi-Abhyankar serial murderers	India	1976–1977	10		Four Pune commercial art students (Rajendra Jakkal, Dilip Sutar, Shantaram Kanhoji Jagtap and Munawar Harun Shah) that broke into random people's homes and businesses and strangled them with a nylon rope. Executed by hanging in 1983.^[488]
Gerald and Charlene Gallego	United States	1978–1980	10		Killed 10 victims in Sacramento, California. Gerald Gallego died of cancer before his death sentence could be carried out. Charlene Gallego was released July 1997.^[489]
Viña del Mar psychopaths	Chile	1980–1981	10		Jorge Sagredo and Carlos Topp committed 10 murders and four rapes from 5 August 1980 to 1 November 1981 in the city of Viña del Mar. Executed by firing squad in 1985, they became the last people executed in Chile.^[490]
Yevgeny Nagorny and Sergei Stavitsky	Russia	1998	10		Killed clients with expensive cars in their autoshop in order to sell them; sentenced to life imprisonment.^[491]
National Socialist Underground	Germany	2000–2007	10		Neo-Nazi group who killed 10 ethnic Turks in the Bosphorus serial murders from 2000 to 2007. Most victims were small business owners killed in broad daylight with a gunshot to the face. Two of the suspects killed themselves and a third, Beate Zschäpe, was apprehended in 2011.^[492]
The Manson Family cult killings	United States	1967–1969	9	21―35^[493]^[494]	A California desert cult formed by Charles Manson in 1967, the 'Manson Family' committed a series of murders in name of promoting Manson's goal of causing a race war that he called Helter Skelter.
Song Jinghua and Yan Jinguang	China	2005–2007	9	9	Robbed and killed women in Beijing out of revenge for Song's brother, who was previously executed for an unrelated crime.^[495]
Tadeusz Grzesik and the Bureaucrats Gang	Poland	1991–2007	8	20+	Robbed and killed people in several Polish voivodeships, mainly owners of exchange offices.^[496]
Edgar Álvarez Cruz and Francisco Granados	Mexico	1993–2003	8–10	14+	Kidnapped, drugged, raped and then killed women in cotton fields.^[497]
The Ciudad Juárez Rebels	Mexico	1995–1996	8	10–14	Gang of serial killers, led by Sergio Armendáriz Diaz and Juan Contreras Jurado, who killed women in Ciudad Juárez; claimed to work for Abdul Latif Sharif.^[498]
The Hernández Brothers Sect	Mexico	1963	8		Originally a scam intended to extort money and sexual favors from the poor, illiterate inhabitants of the small village of Yerba Buena, who were promised favors from "Inca gods" in the mountains, the cult came to include Aztec-inspired human sacrifices after prostitute Magdalena Solís took over as high priestess. 15 people were sentenced to 30 years in prison for their participation in the ritual murders of seven villagers and one police officer.
Rudolfo Infante and Anna Villeda	Mexico	1991	8		Responsible for 8 murders.^[499]
Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman	United States	2006	8		Known as the "Serial Shooter". Responsible for 8 murders in random drive-by shootings in 2006 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Futoshi Matsunaga and Junko Ogata	Japan	1996–1998	7	9	Matsunaga and Ogata tortured and killed seven people who Matsunaga held prisoner through blackmail, six of whom were members of the Ogata family. Matsunaga was also investigated in the death of a woman he defrauded and one of her children but no evidence was found to prove he had murdered them.
Christopher Worrell and James Miller	Australia	1976–1977	7	7	Known as the "Truro Murderers"; Worrell was killed in a car accident and the killings stopped. Later Miller was convicted of killing seven people in 1976–1977.^[500]
Fa Ziying and Lao Rongzhi	China	1996–1999	7	7	A pair of Chinese serial killers. The two met in 1993 and later became lovers. The prosecution accused them of kidnapping, robbery, and murder in Nanchang, Wenzhou, and Hefei from 1996 to 1999. A total of 7 people were killed. Ziying was arrested on 23 July 1999 in Hefei and subsequently sentenced to death, deprived of political rights for life, and fined by the Hefei Intermediate People's Court. On 28 December 1999, Ziying was executed by being shot.
Johannes van Rooyen and Dumisani Makhubela	South Africa	2005	7	7	Two South African men who raped, robbed and murdered multiple victims, including a family of four. Sentenced to four centuries in prison after a two-year trial.^[501]
Auto Shankar's Gang	India	1988–1989	6	9	Nine men who collaborated to abduct and murder at least 6 teenage girls in Chennai; their bodies were cremated and thrown into the sea or buried under residential homes. Leader Auto Shankar and two accomplices were sentenced to death by hanging in 1991, his brother Auto Mohan to three consecutive life sentences in prison and five other collaborators to six months in prison.
Gert van Rooyen and Joey Haarhof	South Africa	1988–1989	6	8	Their victims were never found; the pair shot dead a police officer and then committed suicide when faced with arrest after the escape of their last kidnap victim.
Kiss brothers and Zsolt István Pető	Hungary	2008–2009	6	6	A series of murders perpetrated by three Neo-Nazis (with an accomplice István Csaba Csontos) against people of Roma ethnicity, occurring between July 2008 and August 2009. It is regarded as one of the worst crimes in the country's history after the war.
Hermann Duft and Hans Wilhelm Bassenauer	Greece	1969	6		German serial killers who murdered six persons in Greece, within a short period in 1969, were captured, tried, sentenced to death and executed.
David Alan Gore and Fred Waterfield	United States	1981–1983	6		Cousins connected to the murders of six females. Gore was executed in 2012 and Waterfield was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Artyom Alexandrovich Anoufriev and Nikita Vakhtangovich Lytkin	Russia	2010–2011	6		Teenaged thrill-killers of random people.
The Skin Hunters	Poland	2002 and earlier	5	40–1200+^[502]	Hospital crew that killed patients in order to get bribes from nearby funeral homes. Two doctors and two paramedics were convicted for the murder of five patients, but the investigation is continuing, with over 40 remaining suspects. There are also suspicions that due to the heavy use of pancuronium bromide, scoline and potassium chloride in 1998–2001, the number of victims could be as high as 1200.^[503]
Ray and Faye Copeland	United States	1986–1989	5	12	Oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States at the ages of 75 and 69; convicted of killing five men; modus operandi was to hire unskilled drifters as farmhands and later kill them.^[504]
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley	United Kingdom	1963–1965	5	12	Responsible for the "Moors murders": they abducted, raped, tortured and murdered at least five children in the Manchester area before burying their victims on Saddleworth Moor as part of an experiment in "existential experience". The case attracted much media coverage long after the two were sentenced, especially in the United Kingdom, as Hindley sought release from prison from the 1980s but was refused and died in prison. Five victims were identified although Brady periodically claimed that there were up to twelve.
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris	United States	1979	5	5	The "Toolbox Killers"; they kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered five female hitchhikers in southern California over a five-month period in 1979.^[505]
"The Family"	Australia	1979–1983	5		An alleged group of up to 12 Australian men, believed to include unspecified high-profile figures, responsible for the abduction, torture and murder of five Australian teenagers and young adults who died from being sodomized with blunt instruments. One member of the group, Bevan Spencer von Einem, was convicted of the final murder, but police believe more unidentified people to have been involved in the crimes. The group has also been linked to upwards of 150 sexual assaults and rapes against teenage boys.^[506]
James Gregory Marlow and Cynthia Coffman	United States	1986	5		Killed four women and one man in 1986.
Gwendolyn Graham and Catherine May Wood	United States	1987	5		Nurses who killed five elderly women in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Chijon family	South Korea	1993	5		South Korean gang of cannibals that was sentenced to death for killing five people.
Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine	United States	1984–1999	4	19^[507]	Known as the "Speed Freak Killers"; California duo initially convicted of four murders from 1984 to 1999.^[508]
David and Catherine Birnie	Australia	1986	4	4–8	Australian couple who raped and murdered four women in their home and attempted to murder a fifth in Perth in 1986. Both were sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole; David Birnie hanged himself in prison on October 7, 2005.
John Duffy and David Mulcahy	United Kingdom	1985–86	3	100+	Known as the "Railway Rapists". Duffy and Mulcahy stalked and raped women near train stations in London, killing at least three of the victims. Duffy was found guilty in 1988 of two murders and four rapes. He later confessed to another murder and implicated Mulcahy in his crimes, leading to his conviction.^[509] After Mulcahy's trial, the police announced that they were investigating possible links between the two men and hundreds of unsolved rape and murder cases.^[510]
Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck	United States	1947–1949	3	20	Known as the "Lonely Hearts Killers", Fernandez and Beck extorted women Fernandez met through lonely hearts advertisements. Both were arrested in Michigan in 1949 for the murders of a woman and her two-year-old daughter, but Michigan authorities waived prosecution and extradited the pair to New York to face trial for a murder that occurred there because New York had the death penalty while Michigan did not. They were convicted of that murder and executed in 1951.^[511]
Beasts of Satan	Italy	1998–2004	3	18	Cult members responsible for ritualistic murders, and are suspected in other cases, including suicides.^[512]
James Paster and Stephen McCoy	United States	1980–1981	3	5	Texas duo convicted of three murders from 1980 to 1981, and both subsequently executed. Shortly before his execution Paster confessed to having committed two additional murders.^[513]^[514]^[515]
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka	Canada	1990–1992	3	5	Bernardo, a serial rapist, and his girlfriend Homolka were responsible for the murders of three teenage girls, including Homolka's sister Tammy Homolka, who were kidnapped and raped by Bernardo before being killed by Bernardo and Homolka. Homolka received a light sentence in return for testifying against Bernardo as part of a controversial plea bargain; it was proved after the bargain that her involvement in the murders was greater than previously believed. Bernardo has also been suggested as a suspect in a 1991 death with similarities to his modus operandi, and is the prime suspect in the 1990 disappearance and probable murder of Elizabeth Bain, which her boyfriend Robert Baltovich was wrongly convicted of before being exonerated in 2008.
Michael Bear Carson and Suzan Carson	United States	1981–1983	3	3+	Nomadic hippie killers involved in the counter-culture movement; sentenced to life imprisonment for three San Francisco Bay Area murders in 1983.
Joseph and Michael Kallinger	United States	1974–1975	3		Joseph Kallinger murdered three people and tortured four families with his 13-year-old son Michael in New Jersey.
Silvia Merez Cult	Mexico	2009–2012	3		Ritually murdered three people in sacrifices to Santa Muerte.
Raya and Sakina and their husbands	Egypt	1919^[516]–1920	2	Unknown	Gang of four that rented a house for women and killed them to rob their money and jewellery. Raya and Sakina were the first women executed in the modern state of Egypt, in 1921.
Amelia Sach and Annie Walters	United Kingdom	1900–1903	1^{[note 1]}	300+^[517]	Sach and Walters, known as the "Finchley baby farmers", would take in unwanted babies from young women, collect a fee and then discreetly murder the children. They were executed in 1903, the only double hanging of women in British history.

Name	Country	Years active	Proven victims	Possible victims	Notes
Bruno Lüdke	Germany	1928–1943	51	86	Mentally disabled, Lüdke was arrested after being discovered with a corpse. Police declared him insane and imprisoned him in a psychiatric hospital, where he died when he was experimented on. The only evidence tying him to the crimes was a confession that may have been physically coerced. He was never given a trial and he is generally considered innocent.^[518]
"Highway of Tears" Killer	Canada	1980–present	18	83	All the victims were young women and were last seen on Highway 16 in British Columbia between Prince George and Prince Rupert. If they were all victims of the same person, it would be one of the most prolific serial killers in Canada and one with the longest career in the world. Some of the murders have been linked to American criminal Bobby Jack Fowler, although he was in prison at the time others were committed.^[519]^[520]
Orlando Sabino	Brazil	1966?–1971?	12		Suspected of murdering 12 people in Minas Gerais and Goiás, as well as mutilating several animals; sentenced to 38 years imprisonment and died from a heart attack in 2013. Conspiracy theorists allege that the victims were killed by the military government, which framed Sabino.^[521]
Charles Quansah	Ghana	1993–2001	8	34	Quansah, who had been in prison for rape twice, was held as a suspect in the deaths of 34 women across the country, including his girlfriend who was strangled in 2000, and eventually confessed to eight murders. He later denied the killings, claiming that the confessions had been extracted under torture, and that the police had also tried unsuccessfully to force him to implicate a number of politicians including former president Jerry Rawlings, his wife Nana Konadu Agyeman and an unidentified member of President John Kufuor's administration.^[522]^[523]
Redhead murders	United States	1978–1992	8+		Series of unsolved homicides believed to have been committed by an unidentified serial killer in Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Pennsylvania.
Jeff Davis 8	United States	2005–2009	8		The bodies of eight women, all of whom had an involvement with drugs or prostitution, were found in swamps and canals surrounding Jennings, Louisiana. Originally thought to be a serial killer, but multiple suspects may be involved.
The Beer Man	India	2006–2007	7		Purported unidentified serial killer that operated in Mumbai and left a beer bottle next to each body as his signature, hence the nickname. A suspect was charged with three of the murders and convicted of one in 2008, but the sentence was overturned by the High Court in 2009 because the evidence presented was deemed inadmissible.
Pedro Rosa da Conceição	Brazil	1904–1911	5	17	Brazilian mass murderer who killed three people and wounded thirteen others on 22 April 1904. Killed his cellmate and a guard in 1911, and is said to have murdered a family of twelve people in an unspecified date and year. Died in 1919. The family murders are not verified.
Earl Bramblett	United States	1977–1994	4	6	Mass murderer who murdered four members of the Hodges family in their home in Vinton, Virginia in August 1994. He was a suspect in the 1977 disappearances of Tammy Akers and Angela Rader, who were both 14 years old and worked for him at the time,^[524] but not enough evidence to charge him was found before his execution for the Hodges murders in 2003.
Henry Lee Lucas	United States	1960–1983	3	600+	Confessed to killing 3,000^[525]^[526] and later 600 people but later recanted and is suspected of lying about a majority of the murders. He originally offered a list of 77 women from 19 different states, but as he confessed to more and more murders, the details became increasingly more bizarre. Some included dismemberment, necrophilia, even cannibalism. Lawmen linked Lucas and Ottis Toole to 81 murders only. Convicted of 11 murders.^[527] The true number of murders committed by Lucas is unknown, but it is likely Lucas was not nearly as prolific a serial killer as he initially claimed to be, as most of his murder confessions were thoroughly discredited, and he himself claimed only one murder—that of his mother.^[528]^[529]
José Pedro Guedes	Portugal	1992–1993	3	3–21+	Confessed and was arrested for the "Lisbon Ripper" murders in 2011, but could not be prosecuted because the Portuguese statute of limitations had already run out. Also suspected of similar murders in Lisbon and Aveiro, Portugal, as well as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Czech Republic and the 1988 New Bedford Highway Killings in Massachusetts, USA.
"Bowraville Murders" Killer	Australia	1990–1991	3		Proposed serial killer responsible of the murders of three Aboriginal children in the same area, all bludgeoned to death. Thomas Jay Hart was tried for one of the murders and acquitted, and held as a suspect in another for which he did not face prosecution.
Wayne Williams	United States	1979–1981	2	24–31	Believed to have perpetrated the Atlanta murders of 1979–1981. After being convicted of two murders and sentenced to life imprisonment, authorities closed 22 other unsolved murders, declaring Williams to have been the perpetrator. Williams has maintained his innocence and the case was reopened in 2005.^[530]
Kieran Patrick Kelly	United Kingdom	c. 1953–1983	2	31	Irish vagrant who operated in London, England. He was convicted of two murders but confessed to many more, claiming he used a variety of methods from pushing people in front of trains to setting them on fire to poisoning them, and said he had been murdering for a period of some thirty years. In 2015 former detective George Platt published a book about Kelly claiming he could be responsible for 31 murders, prompting the chief of the Metropolitan Police Bernard Hogan Howe to promise a re-investigation into his crimes. However, in 2019 Irish journalist Robert Mullhern published a book raising serious questions about Platt's claims, concluding that Kelly was only responsible for 5 or 6 murders.^[531]^[532]
Christopher Halliwell	United Kingdom	1985–2011	2	28–60	Halliwell pleaded guilty in 2012 to abducting and murdering Sian O'Callaghan the previous year. He also confessed to the 2003 murder of Becky Godden-Edwards, but his confession was ruled inadmissible and he could not be convicted until 2016, when new evidence was found. Halliwell is a person of interest in 26 other murders, and a collection of articles of women's clothing which included some taken from his victims may link him to up to 60 murders.
Allan Grimson	United Kingdom	1986–1998	2	22	Homosexual Royal Navy sailor Grimson was convicted of the partially sexually-motivated murders of two other (non-homosexual) Royal Navy sailors while docked in Portsmouth on 12 December 1997 and 12 December 1998. Strongly suspected of being responsible for up to 20 other murders across different navy bases of the world, including in Gibraltar and New Zealand.^[533] Also the prime suspect in the disappearance of fellow Royal Navy sailor Simon Parkes from Gibraltar in 1986, in part because he disappeared on 12 December, the date on which Grimson was known to have always killed his victims, and because Grimson was docked in Gibraltar with the navy at this time. Grimson's 2001 trial judge told him that he was "a serial killer in nature if not in number".^[534]
Billy Edwin Reid	United States	1989	2	21	Reid was arrested in 2006 after a successful DNA profiling test proved his responsibility in the murders of two sex workers in 1989 in Denver, Colorado.^[535] It is thought he might have been responsible for many murders, including some from the Denver Prostitute Killer – an unidentified single, or multiple serial killers responsible 17–27 murders between 1975 and 1995.^[536]
Joe Ball	United States	1937–1938	2	20	Bootlegger and barman known as the "Butcher of Elmendorf", the "Bluebeard of South Texas", and "the Alligator Man" because of the alligator pit he had in the back of his bar and where he entertained clients by throwing live animals to the reptiles. Ball killed two barmaids but he shot himself fatally in the chest when police came to question him and was never arrested or interrogated. Yellow press and pulp magazines later exaggerated his exploits, claiming that he had killed up to 20 women and fed them to the alligators, but this was never proven and caused some of Ball's relatives to sue such publications. Police investigated about a dozen missing women who had worked at Ball's place; some were found alive in San Antonio, but others could not be accounted for.^[537]
Alun Kyte	United Kingdom	1984–1997	2	12	Kyte was found guilty of raping and murdering two sex workers in 1993 and 1994. He reportedly boasted to fellow inmates while serving time on a rape charge that he had killed a total of 12 women and police have linked him to a number of unsolved murders of women^[538] although he has been ruled out in many cases in which he was initially suspected.^[539]
Larry Gene Bell	United States	1975–1985	2	5	Bell abducted and killed two women, Shari Smith and Debra Helmick, in May and June 1985. He was also a suspect in the disappearances of Denise Porch, Sandee Cornett and Beth Hagen. Bell was executed for murdering Smith and Helmick in 1996.^[540]
Michael Stone	United Kingdom	1976–1996	2	4	Stone, who was convicted of the 1996 double murder of Lin and Megan Russell, is suspected of two other murders.^[541]^[542] His conviction is controversial and his legal team blame confirmed serial killer Levi Bellfield for the 1996 murders,^[543] although members of Stone's family believe he committed one additional murder.^[544]
David Smith	United Kingdom	1988–1999	2	4	Smith was jailed for life in 1999 for murdering prostitute Amanda Walker. It was widely reported that he had previously been acquitted of the "almost identical" murder of another prostitute, Sarah Crump. Smith's acquittal was overturned in 2023 and he was found guilty of murdering Crump after he bragged to fellow inmates about how he had "got away with it".^[545] Smith is also suspected of murdering two other women prior to his initial conviction.^[546]
James Otto Earhart	United States	1981–1987	2	3	Earhart murdered Virginia Freeman in Brazos County, Texas on 1 December 1981. He also murdered nine-year-old Kandy Kirtland in 1987, and was executed for the murder in 1999. Posthumous DNA testing later proved that he was responsible for Freeman's murder, and he is also suspected of killing another woman in 1986.^[547]
Jeffrey Willis	United States	1996–2014	2	3	Willis was convicted of the 2013 murder of Jessica Heeringa, whose body was never found, and of the 2014 murder of Rebekah Bletsch. Both women had had their photos included in a file on Willis' computer labelled "vics" (short for victims).^[548] Willis is also a person of interest in the unsolved murder of Angela Thornburg in 1996.^[549]
Ángel Nieves Díaz	United States Puerto Rico	1978–1979	2	3	Díaz was convicted of killing a store clerk in a robbery in Miami in 1979, having escaped from prison in Puerto Rico the previous year after being convicted of murdering another man. Police also suspected him of involvement in a third murder committed while he was on the run.^[550]^[551]
Pam Hupp	United States	2011–2016	1–2	3	Hupp is the prime suspect in the 2011 murder of cancer patient Betsy Faria, who was stabbed to death shortly after making Hupp the sole beneficiary of a sizable life insurance policy. Faria's husband Russ was wrongfully convicted of her murder but was exonerated in 2015 and mobile data placed Hupp at the scene of the crime. After Russ was released, Hupp murdered a man named Louis Gumpenberger in 2016 and attempted to frame Russ for hiring him to kill her, but was caught and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder. Hupp is currently awaiting trial for the murder of Betsy Faria, and is also suspected of having murdered her mother Shirley Neumann for inheritance in 2013.
Clementine Barnabet	United States	1911	1	35	Barnabet was convicted of one murder but confessed as a total of 35.^[552] She was believed to have murdered entire families in their sleep, but doubt has been cast on the extent of her involvement.^[553] Sentenced to life imprisonment but released in 1923.
Jessie McTavish	United Kingdom	1974	1^[b]	24	British nurse who was convicted in 1974 of the murder of a patient with insulin after being inspired by the plot of A Man Called Ironside. She was released on appeal in 1975, despite three appeal court judges saying there was ample evidence to support the conviction, as the trial judge had inadvertently misled the jury in his final summary.^[554] The appeal court judges said that it was an omission that "a few words could have cured."^[554] Apart from the case prosecuted, another 23 cases were deemed suspicious by investigators.^[555] Although acquitted, McTavish's case often is mentioned in lectures at medical colleges in Britain, and is cited in textbooks and academic papers about forensic science and medical malpractice.^[556]^[557]^[558] McTavish, now known as Jessie Gordon, is believed to have been the inspiration for serial killer nurse Colin Norris.^[554]
Abdul Latif Sharif	Mexico	1995	1	18–20	Egyptian chemist known as "The Jackal of Ciudad Juárez". After migrating to the United States in the 1970s, Sharif served 14 years in prison for several rapes but fled to Mexico when he was about to be deported to his home country. There, he was accused of up to 20 of the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez but was convicted of only one, to 30 years in prison, where he died of natural causes in 2006. As the high rate of female murders has continued to this day in Ciudad Juárez, it has been claimed that Sharif was used as a scapegoat by the Mexican police.^[559]
Daisuke Mori	Japan	2000 and earlier	1	11+	Nurse that was sentenced to life imprisonment for one murder but suspected of killing at least 10 others. He might have confessed to some of the murders in order to protect others.^[560]
Thomas Henry McMonigle	United States	1945 and before	1	11	McMonigle was executed in 1948 for the murder of Thora Afton Chamberlain three years before, having admitted to shooting her and throwing her off a cliff after trying to rape her. While awaiting execution he claimed to have committed eleven murders, but these claims could not be verified.^[561]
Bevan Spencer von Einem	Australia	1979–1983	1	10	Arrested for three and convicted of one of "The Family Murders", where four teenagers and one young adult, all male, were drugged, kidnapped, raped and mutilated for several weeks before their bodies were abandoned in the countryside near Adelaide. Police believed that von Einem had several accomplices, none of whom was publicly identified or detained, and at the time of his trial it was widely reported that the murders had been committed by a group of four to 12 high-profile Australian men; von Einem himself claimed to be the victim of a conspiracy. He has also been considered a suspect in the disappearance of two girls near the Adelaide Oval in 1973 and the high-profile Beaumont children disappearance in 1966.^[562]
Paul Bateson	United States	1975–1977	1	10	Bateson, known for his involvement in The Exorcist, stabbed film journalist Addison Verrill to death after having sex with him in 1977. While imprisoned for the murder he allegedly bragged about committing the "bag murders", a series of murders of six gay men in New York City who were dismembered and dumped in the Hudson River, and supposedly admitted three other murders to an acquaintance prior to Verrill's murder. However he was never charged with any crimes apart from Verrill's murder due to lack of evidence.^[563]
Derek Percy	Australia	1965–1969	1	9	Percy abducted and murdered 12-year-old Yvonne Tuohy in 1969 and was remanded indefinitely after being found mentally unfit for trial. A wider investigation found that his movements around the country and physical description linked him to multiple unsolved murders and disappearances of children, including the Wanda Beach Murders in 1965, the Beaumont children disappearance and the murder of Allen Redston in 1966 and two other unsolved cases in 1968; Percy himself claimed to be unable to remember if he had killed anybody else.
Brian Field	United Kingdom	1968–1996	1	5	Field raped and murdered 13-year-old Roy Tutill in 1968, but was not convicted until 2001, in the interim serving time in prison for sex offences against children. He is the prime suspect in the disappearance of Patrick Warren and David Spencer in 1996, and a person of interest in the 1985 disappearance of Lee Boxell and the murder of another child, Mark Billington, in 1984.
Lowell Amos	United States	1979?–1994	1	4	Detroit businessman sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 for the murder of his third wife. Suspected of, but never charged with the deaths of two previous wives and his mother, all of whom died under suspicious circumstances and left life insurance policies to Amos that, at least in one case, Amos himself had bought against the will of the insured.
Robert Durst	United States	1971–2001	1	3–6	Durst was a suspect in the 1982 disappearance of his wife Kathleen McCormack, who vanished after arguing with Durst. He murdered his longtime friend Susan Berman, who had provided him with an alibi for the disappearance, in 2000, and in 2001 killed and dismembered a neighbour named Morris Black but was acquitted on grounds of self-defense. He was convicted of murdering Susan Berman in 2021 and was also charged with the murder of Kathleen McCormack, but died before he could stand trial for that crime.^[564] Durst was also investigated as a suspect in the 1971 disappearance of Lynne Schulze^[565] and the disappearances of Karen Mitchell and Kristen Modafferi in 1997.^[566]
Charles Albright	United States	1990–1991	1	3	Albright was convicted of the 1991 murder of prostitute Shirley Williams, who was shot twice in the head and had her eyeballs removed by the killer. He was accused of two similar murders of sex workers but was not convicted.
John Cannan	United Kingdom	1986–1987	1	3	Cannan, a serial rapist, is serving a life sentence for the 1987 kidnap, rape and murder of Shirley Banks. Police have also named Cannan as the prime suspect in the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh^[567] and the murder of Sandra Court, both of which took place in 1986.^[568]
Bennett Clark Hyde	United States	1909	1^[c]	3	Hyde was accused of murdering Thomas H. Swope and two members of his family under the guise of treating them for a typhoid epidemic in order that his wife would inherit a sizable amount of money. He was convicted of the murder of Thomas Swope, but his conviction was overturned on a technicality, two further trials ended in a mistrial and a fourth trial was not proceeded with.^[569]
David Moor	United Kingdom	1970s–1999	0	300^[d]	British doctor who was prosecuted for the "euthanasia" of a patient. He was found not guilty, but then admitted in a press interview to having "helped" 300 people to die. Some press reports referred to him as "Britain's greatest serial killer" and "Doctor Death". If the 300 victims are accepted as murder victims, he would have killed more than the most prolific serial killer known to the world, fellow British doctor Harold Shipman.^[570]
Edgar Matobato	Philippines	1988–2013	0	Hundreds	Self-confessed hitman and serial killer claiming to have killed people as part of the Davao Death Squad; his claims' authenticity has been challenged.^[571]
John Bodkin Adams	United Kingdom	1946–1956	0	163	Acquitted in a highly unusual trial in 1957 of murder but later found guilty of fraud. Archive evidence shows that he was almost certainly a killer but that his prosecution was sabotaged for political reasons.^[572]^{[failed verification]}
The Man from the Train	United States	1898–1912	0	40–100+	Murdered entire families in their sleep, arriving and departing by train. Existence (and probable but not proven identity) discovered more than 100 years after the murders, by analysis of contemporary records, showing a markedly common modus operandi for many previously unconnected murders.^[573]
Ivomoku Bakusuba	Ruanda-Urundi	1940s	0	67	Confessed to killing 67 children by strangling them with a bedsheet. Killed himself, "probably in late 1940s or in early 1950s." As information on this serial killer was only revealed by a police officer in 2018 during a conversation with a Brazilian writer, and there is no information on his conviction, the confirmation that he was a serial killer is debatable.
Manchester Pusher	United Kingdom	Since 2007	0	61+	Alleged serial killer supposedly responsible for the deaths of dozens of people drowned in canals in Manchester. Proponents of the theory point to the "alarming" number of deaths occurring in the Rochdale, Ashton and Bridgewater Canals since the early 2000s, with many of the victims being young gay men (as Manchester's canals have historically been used as gay cruising areas), but police have dismissed the serial killer theory and maintain that the deaths are unrelated.^[574]
David Parker Ray	United States	1950–1999	0	60	Torture-murderer possibly aided by numerous accomplices, including his girlfriend. Targeted victims around Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Convicted of attempted killing of three victims and is suspected of 60 murders, even though no bodies were ever found. Known as the "Toybox Killer" for the self-built mobile home he used in the rape, torture, and killing of women.^[575]
Smiley Face Killer	United States	1990s–2000s	0	40+	Theoretical serial killer(s) thought by some sources to have drowned college-aged young men across the northern part of the country since 1997; most experts suggest that the deaths were accidental.
Howard Martin	United Kingdom	1977–2010	0	18+^[e]	British doctor who was prosecuted in 2005 for the deaths of three patients but was acquitted. However, the General Medical Council then struck him off as a doctor in 2010 for "hastening" the death of 18 people. He admitted to a newspaper to have killed two of these individuals.^[576]
Marie Besnard	France	1927–1949	0	13	Charged with the murders of 13 relatives with arsenic, all of whom had Besnard as their sole designated heir, but acquitted of all charges after three high-profile trials that lasted a decade.^[577]
Dr. X killings	United States	1966	0	9+	Suspicious deaths of nine people at Riverdell Hospital in Oradell, New Jersey. Mario Enrique Jascalevich was acquitted in 1978.
Alfred Leonard Cline	United States	1930–1945	0	9	Suspected of poisoning his eight wives and one man with sedative-laced buttermilk. Not enough evidence could be found to prosecute him for murder, but he was convicted of forging his victims' wills and died in prison in 1948.
Nathaniel Bar-Jonah	United States	1973–1999	0	5	Child molester sentenced to hundreds of years in prison for sexual offences. He was tried for abducting and murdering Zach Ramsey in 1999; though not convicted, he is widely considered responsible for the crime, and is suspected to have also cannibalized Ramsey. Police have additionally linked Bar-Jonah to the abduction and possible murder of four other children and teenagers.^[578]

List of serial killers by number of victims

Serial killers with the highest known victim count

Serial killers with 15 to 30 proven victims

Serial killers with 5 to 14 proven victims

Serial killers with fewer than five proven victims

Medical professionals and pseudo-medical professionals

Serial killer groups and couples

Disputed cases

See also

Explanatory notes

References

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