Disturbing Facts About Infamous American Serial Killers

Unfortunately, the United States has been host to numerous prolific and terrifying serial killers. Some committed their heinous misdeeds over a period of decades, committing crimes against humanity and evading capture.

Jeffrey Dahmer, an American sex predator and serial killer, was known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or Milwaukee Monster. He committed murders and dismemberment against 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991.

In a strange twist of irony, Dahmer served in the military for two years and worked as a U.S army medic. The infamous serial killer was 19 years old at the time. He was the rank of Private Class (PFC) and served from January 1979 until March 1981.

Dahmer’s first victim, Steven Hicks, was 18 years when he got into the car with one of America’s most notorious serial killers. Dahmer took Hicks to his parent’s home in Ohio and proceeded to strangle the young man and beat him with a barbell.

Dahmer was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct in September 1981. The following year, Dahmer was again picked up for exposing himself at a Wisconsin State Fair Park.

After Dahmer was arrested, his parents sent him to live with his grandmother in an attempt to help him clean up his act. Instead, Dahmer committed atrocities in the old woman’s basement. Not only did he torture and murder boys and men he brought back to his grandmother’s home, but he also dismembered their bodies there.

Tracy Edwards escaped Dahmer’s apartment in 1991 after hitting the killer over the head while his eyes were closed, as he chanted while The Exorcist was on for both of them to view.

When investigating officers were sent to Dahmer’s apartment to corroborate Tracy Edward’s story, they discovered a number of disturbing pieces of evidence. Authorities found body parts belonging to a whopping 11 different people, including three heads in the freezer, another in the fridge, along with other body parts that Jeffrey referred to as “meat” as he would eat his victims.

Dahmer’s defense attempted to angle Dahmer as a madman. His attorneys claimed that only a truly insane person could have committed the atrocious acts that he committed, describing in great detail what he perpetuated against his victims.

Hybristophilia or “Bonnie and Clyde syndrome” occurs when someone has a sexual attraction to a person who committed crimes or caused outrage. Jeffrey Dahmer found himself on the other end of this strange attraction while in jail. He amassed quite the following of which composed of mostly women or “serial killer groupies” …

In November of 1994 Jeffrey Dahmer was beaten to death by fellow inmate Christopher Scarver. Scarver beat both Dahmer and a man named Jesse Anderson to death with a metal bar taken from the weight room after the three men were assigned to a work detail together.

John Wayne Gacy, or “the Killer Clown” as he became known, was an American serial killer and sex offender who terrorized at least 33 young men and boys.

A variety of serial killers are known to intentionally place themselves in close proximity with death and corpses due to their morbid inklings and impulses. The case was no different with John Wayne Gacy. At 20 years old, Gacy left Chicago for Las Vegas where he took on a cleaning job at a mortuary.

During Gacy’s trial, the defense argued that Gacy’s father traumatized the boy turned murderer and damaged him. Allegedly, Gacy Senior wanted a more manly and tough son and perceived feminine traits in his only son.

Gacy moved back home in the early 1960’s and attained a degree in business school. From there he became engaged to his first wife and wed in 1964.

Before his sexual assault trial, Gacy underwent a psychological examination and was deemed a true and incurable psychopath who was a permanent threat to society.

JWG enjoyed dressing as a clown for fundraisers, in hospitals, and children’s parties, which is where he got his namesake, “the killer clown”. He also would fool his victims by showing them a “trick.” After luring the unsuspecting victim to his home, he would handcuff the young man or boy under the guise of play.

A young man named David Cram confessed that he was able to escape sexual assault and torture from John Wayne Gacy by agreeing to dig trenches in his backyard. According to Cram, he walked into Gacy’s house, and he was dressed as a clown.

After John Wayne Gacy was arrested he directed investigators to the crawl space below his home to uncover the bodies of his victims. Upon days upon days of digging, investigators continued to uncover a ghastly and numerous amount of victims.

As his death sentence approached Gacy began to claim (after already confessing 13 years earlier) that he was in fact innocent. Gacy claimed that his employees had committed the murders and planted all 29 of the bodies. He even pursued interviews and attempted to paint himself as the “34^th victim.”

The “Zodiac Killer” is a pseudonym for a still unidentified American serial killer who committed his slayings in Northern California in the late 1960’s. He is considered the most famous unsolved murder case in United States history, and because of this has become a fixture within American culture.

In 1969 the killer targeted Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau in Vallejo Park by shooting them both down. Darlene did not survive, but Michael did and was able to provide crucial details to the police afterwards.

Many of Zodiac’s cipher symbols in his letters belonged to a 13^th century alphabet that was named none other than the “Zodiac alphabet.” Some theories speculate that the serial killer had some form of personal connection to the Medieval times.

Briefly after Zodiac had shot and killed a taxi driver, he fled the scene on foot. There were three teenage witnesses who, upon seeing the incident, called the police. The police arrived at the murder scene quickly.

According to investigators, the 340-cipher used by the Zodiac killer can be found in a 1950’s army cryptography field manual. While the killer put his own take it by altering the direction that the notes had to be read (Zodiac made his diagonal and therefore harder to figure out).

In his final letter, written on January 29^th, 1974, the Zodiac killer referenced the movie The Exorcist, which was a favorite of the aforementioned Jeffrey Dahmer. The letter, which came three years after his last, was credited with being the “best” in terms of satire and humor.

Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., more commonly known as the Golden State Killer, is an American serial rapist, serial killer, and burglar. He is a former police officer for the state of California as well as a decorated Vietnam vet.

DeAngelo would break into the victim’s house and typically tie them up with items he found at their own home. After binding them he would violently sexualyl assault them before murdering them.

Before the Golden State Killer would execute his attack, he would take the time to sneak into their homes prior and learn the layout of their home, studying family photos and names.

The Golden State Killer would often obtain his victim’s phone number during his initial break-in, land lift his victim’s phone number off their home rotary phone. From there he would begin placing either hang-up and/or threatening phone calls.

Prior to becoming a serial killer, the Golden State Killer was a serial rapist. He was known at the time as the East Area Rapist, or Original Night Stalker. His modus operandi was to target women in their on-story homes in middle- and upper-class suburban areas between Sacramento to San Ramon.

Like many serial killers, the Golden State Killer would leave the crime scene with personal items that he lifted off the victim themselves or from their home. Items included cufflinks, wedding rings, driver’s licenses, jewelry, and more.

Four decades of dead ends finally ceased when investigators utilized DAN research to pinpoint the notorious killer. Paul Holes and his research team traced ancestry all the way back to the early1800’s. They traced back roughly 25 family trees with thousands of relatives that led to the modern era.

DeAngelo was engaged as a teenager to a woman named Bonnie Colwell Ueltzen. Ueltzen apparently broke off the budding romance as she found DeAngelo becoming increasingly abusive towards her.

Sharon Huddle and DeAngelo tied the knot in 1973 and a year later the Golden State Killer became a police officer while Huddle continued to study law, eventually becoming a family law attorney. The pair separated in 1991 but remained legally married until 2019.

Samuel Little was an American serial killer who confessed to the slaying of 93 people, mostly consisting of women, with 60 of those victims actually confirmed. He was known as “The Choke and Stroke Killer” as he would beat and then strangle his victims, sometimes while preforming lewd acts.

In 1956, Little was arrested for burglary in Omaha, Nebraska. He was sent to a juvenile institution meant to rehabilitate him, which it did not.

In prison, Little picked up a disturbing hobby, albeit helpful to authorities. Little began to draw portraits of the many women that he beat, strangled, and murdered. Little claimed the only things he was ever good at was “drawing and fighting.” He also had a photographic memory

Little claimed that his mother was a “lady of the night” who abandoned him on the side of a dirt road when he was an infant. He went on to say that he was raised by his grandmother in Lorain, Ohio.

In 1984, Little was first arrested in San Diego for kidnapping, beating, and strangling 22-year-old Laurie Barros. Barros survived. Somehow, only a month later, a police officer discovered Little in a car with a badly beaten and unconscious women who had also been strangled. She too survived.

Samuel Little mainly targeted vulnerable Black women. While one could surmise this came from a deep hatred towards his mother or women in general, apparently it is common for serial killers to target victims of the same race.

In an interview with journalist Jillian Lauren, Little claimed that the women he chose were “half-dead in the eyes” anyway and that he was simply finishing the job. Little told Lauren that he saw himself as an angel of mercy of sorts.

In one interview, Little seemed to claim that he was self-reflecting by trying to trace what attracted him to “a woman’s throat,” but was not quite sure where the attraction was drawn from.

Samuel Little was able to beat, strangle, sexually assault, and murder nearly 100 women over a span of 35 years. His murderous hurricane spanned across more than a dozen states in the U.S and went from 1970 to 2005.

Ted Bundy was a disturbed serial killer who targeted, assaulted, and killed young women. When he was finally caught and convicted of his crimes he confessed to 30 accounts. 20 victims have been confirmed.

One of the things that sets Bundy apart from many other serial killers is that he was known for being handsome and charismatic. Naturally, many people were confused by this because serial killers are known to be withdrawn and somewhat odd, for lack of a better word.

When Ted Bundy was finally caught, he decided to represent himself in court. He had studied law but never became an actual lawyer. Despite professional recommendations he was his own lawyer during his trials.

Carol Ann Boone attended Bundy’s trials and fell in love with him over the course of his case. In an incredibly unbelievable moment in the case, Bundy asked her to marry him while she was a witness and he was acting as his own lawyer.

Interestingly, a construction company that worked on Ted Bundy’s home in Tacoma, Washington claims that the house is haunted. Workers claimed they heard doorknobs jingle. On more than one occasion, a worker would hear a knock at the door and open it to see absolutely no one.

During the media circus that was Ted Bundy’s trial, the killer actually managed to escape. When Bundy was acting as his own lawyer, the judge did not require him to be shackled. This turned out to be a huge mistake.