5. Dennis Rader
Image from http://www.freewebs.com/thebtksite
Dennis Rader was an American Serial Killer who killed a total of 10 people (mostly women), spanning from 1974 to 1991. He became known as the BTK killer (Blind, Torture, Kill). Rader would send letters to the police, claiming responsibility for the murders, signing them -BTK-. At one point, he even called the police to report the murder of a 25 year old woman he had committed the day before. In fact, it was his need to confess to the murders that eventually led to his arrest in 2005, when he committed his thoughts to a computer disk and sent it to a television station in Wichita, Kansas. I think Mr. Rader forgot that we are in the 21st century now and that things can be easily traced but hey, I guess it’s a serial killer’s prerogative to confess. In one of his letters, he asked the police to give him a name, after expressing deep-rooted anger over the fact the papers had not made up a name for him like they did the infamous 19th century English serial killer, Jack the Ripper. Rader even went so far as to offer the police a few names such as ” ‘The B.T.K Strangler’, ‘Wichita Strangler’, ‘Poetic Strangler’, ‘The Bond Age Strangler (or Psycho)’, ‘The Wichita Hangman’, ‘The Wichita Executioner’, ‘The Garote Phathom, and ‘The Asphixiater’ (spelled exactly as the 1978 letter has them spelled).
Copy of a letter written to the Wichita Police. http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/letters-from-btk/page-2/
4. Andrei Chikatilo
Image from freeinfosociety.com
Andrei Chikatilo was a Ukrainian Serial Killer. His killing streak started in 1978, ending in 1990. He was nicknamed The Red Ripper, and The Butcher of Rostov. Chikatilo is said to have killed 53 people, all women and children. He said he began killing after he tried to rape a 9-year-old, but her struggling caused him to stab her to death which resulted in him having an orgasm. He said from that moment on, he had to kill, because stabbing was the only way he could have orgasms. While under police surveillance in 1990, Chikatilo was arrested after trying to approach a group of young children. He was sent to trial on April 14, 1992 and convicted on 52 of the 53 counts of murder and sent to death for each one. Chikatilo was killed by firing squad on February 14, 1994.
3. John Wayne Gacy
Image from prairieghosts.com
Image from freeinfosociety.com
John Wayne Gacy was a famous Chicago business man before he because a psychopathic serial rapist and killer. Between the years of 1972-1978, Gacy managed to rape and kill at least 33 teenage boys and young men. He eventually became known as “The Killer Clown”. Gacy buried 26 of his 33 victims in a crawl space of his home, only stopping because the crawl space was full. Gacy eventually confessed to police, and was executed on May 9, 1994 by lethal injection. Gacy’s final words before his execution, was “Kiss my ass”. Notable psychopath he was.
2. Ted Bundy
Image from clarkprosecutor.org
Ted Bundy is definitely one of the most infamous serial killers of all time. Bundy was your typical handsome law student who could have any woman he wanted. Unfortunately, because of one woman that broke his heart, over 30 woman that looked like her, were raped and killed from 1974-1978. Bundy would rape his victims and then either bludgeon or strangle them to death. Bundy also decapitated over a dozen of his victims with what he says was a hacksaw. Bundy also confessed taking part in necrophilia, stating that he would lie with them for hours, applying makeup to their corpses and having sex with their decomposing bodies until “putrefaction forced him to abandon the remains”. Ted Bundy was electrocuted on January 24, 1989. When getting his sentence, the judge told him:
“It is ordered that you be put to death by a current of electricity, that current be passed through your body until you are dead. Take care of yourself, young man. I say that to you sincerely; take care of yourself, please. It is an utter tragedy for this court to see such a total waste of humanity as I’ve experienced in this courtroom. You’re an intelligent young man. You’d have made a good lawyer, and I would have loved to have you practice in front of me, but you went another way, partner. Take care of yourself. I don’t feel any animosity toward you. I want you to know that. Once again, take care of yourself.”
1. Javed Iqbal
Image fromserial-killers.findthedata.org
Javed Iqbal was a Punjabi serial killer who claimed that he killed 100 boys in an 18 month span. Iqbal would drug, rape and strangle his victims. After killing his victims, he dumped them in a vat of hydrochloric acid . Iqbal apparently confessed, saying “I am Javed Iqbal, killer of 100 children … I hate this world, I am not ashamed of my action and I am ready to die. I have no regrets. I killed 100 children.” Iqbal was sentenced to death by hanging. Before he could be hung though, he was found strangled with his bed sheets in his prison cell on October 7, 2001.