Top 10 Famous Serial Killers
... Your Worst Nightmare.

Famous serial killers gain their notoriety in several ways... by the bizarre or brutal methods they use to single out and kill their victims, or by the sheer number of killings they carry out.

What drives these killers to carry out such heinous crimes?

Some would argue that there is such a thing as natural born killers. While others believe that criminal psychology and criminal profiling gives us the ability to put together some kind of a Serial Killer Profile.

The frightening thing is that it seems there have always been famous serial killers on the loose out there... and there probably always will be. Now that's a scary thought.

Top 10 Famous Serial Killers... acting alone.

1. Luis Alfredo Garavito... "The Beast":

Where: Colombia, South America.
When: 1990 - 1999.
How: Preyed on young peasant or street children; he would lure them into the countryside, rape and torture them, cut their throats, and often dismembered the corpses.
Victims: 140 confirmed, but probably over 400
Sentence: 30 years imprisonment (maximum allowed under Columbian law). The sentence was reduced to 22 years because he helped authorities.

No Early Release for World's Most Prolific Child Killer?

2. Pedro Alonso Lopez... "Monster of the Andes":

Where: Colombia, Ecuador & Peru, South America.
When: 1969 -1980.
How: raped and strangled young girls..."I like the girls in Ecuador... they are more gentle, trusting, and innocent."
Victims: 110 confirmed, but possibly up to 350.
Sentence: 16 years jail in Ecuador (the maximum allowed). He was released in 1998. Columbian authorities later issued an arrest warrant in 2002 for another murder... current whereabouts unknown!

*... again, justice not seen to be done with one of the world's worst serial killers.

... view all Top 10 Serial Killers Acting Alone:

Top 10 Famous Serial Killers...not acting alone.

1. Henry Lee Lucas & Ottis Toole:

Where:Murdered in 28 states of the U.S.A.

When:1961 - 1983.

How: Both started killing alone. Lucas first killed at age 15, Toole at 14. They met in 1976, developed a sexual relationship and embarked on a cross-country killing spree together.

Victims: Lucas confessed to being involved in over 600 murders. In 1985 "The duo helped police recover the bodies of 246 missing people and confessed to or implicated themselves in a further 520 murders". (Ref: Wikipedia).

Sentence: Both died in prison...Lucas in 2001 of heart failure, Toole in 1996 of liver failure.

... view all Top 10 Serial Killers Not Acting Alone:

Top 10 Medical Mass Murderers.

2. "Dr.Henry Holmes"...real name Herman Mudgett.

Where: Chicago, U.S.A.

When: 1888 - 1894.

How: Holmes was a real monster and truly earned his place on our Famous Serial Killers list. Graduating as a M.D. in 1884 he went on to kill many women (whom he had sex with then tortured and murdered), but also killed old women, children and men for financial gain. He sold victim's body parts to medical schools, killed lovers and people in Life Insurance scams, swindled in business and real estate, was a serial bigamist... anything that brought a buck, he did it.

Best known for his "Murder Castle", a huge, 3-storey hotel with a maze of over 100 windowless rooms, passages and secret tunnels which he built near the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Countless lovers and guests vanished in that hotel. Police uncovered soundproof rooms where victims were gassed, poisoned, tortured and murdered before being disposed of by being dismembered, cremated or placed in lime pits or acid.

Victims: Confessed to 27, more likely 200 - 350+.

Sentence: Hanged in 1896.

... view all Top 10 Medical Mass Murderers: