Top 10 Serial Killers
Acting Alone.

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.

The majority act alone. Many are crazy psychopaths. Just pray to God one doesn't cross your path, or anyone in your family.

Top 10 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?

   Garavito said in a TV interview in 2006 that when released he might start a "political career in order to help abused children"... ref: Wikipedia.

   In May 2011 Columbian Senator Gilma Jimenez suggested Garavito might be eligible for a "much earlier release date" due to study hours completed, with speculation he might be released after only serving 16 years... (ref: Colombia Reports, Nov 29, 2011)

   * ... hardly seems appropriate for one of the worst serial killers ever.
   
   
   
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.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Daniel Camargo Barbosa:
   
   Where: Colombia & Ecuador, South America.
   When: 1974 -1989.
   How: kidnapped, raped, murdered and dismembered young virgin girls. He liked young virgins "because they cried".
   Victims: 72 confirmed, but probably over 150.
   Sentence: 16 years in jail (the maximum allowed in Ecuador). He was murdered in prison by a cousin of one of his victims.
   
   
   
4. Billy Gohl... "Ghoul of Grays Harbor":
   Where: Aberdeen, Washington, U.S.A.
   When: 1902 - 1910.
   How: As a Union Official he would welcome seamen (who would not be missed) arriving into Aberdeen, often with valuables or cash on hand. He would shoot his victims in the head in the Union building then dump their bodies into the Wishkah River running alongside through a secret trap-door.
   Victims: 2 confirmed, suspected of over 140.
   Sentence: Died in 1927 in an asylum for the criminally insane.
   
   
   
5. Serhiy Tkach... Pologovsky Maniac:
   Where: Ukraine.
   When: 1984 - 2005.
   How: One of Russia's worst serial killers, this former Ukrainian policeman strangled girls aged 8 to 18, often having sex with the corpses afterwards.
   Victims: Confirmed 36, but suspected of over 130.
   Sentence: Life imprisonment.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Darya Nikolayevna Saltykova:
   Where: Moscow, Russia.
   When: 1756 - 1762.
   How: Married into the famous and wealthy Saltykov family and widowed at 26, she went on to kill and torture serfs and servants on her estate.
   Victims: Convicted of 38, suspected of 138.
   Sentence: Imprisoned in the basement of Ivanovsky Convent for life, died 1801.
   
   
7. Pedro Rodrigues Filho..."Pedrinho Matador":
   Where: Brazil, South America.
   When: 1967 - 2003.
   How: Killed first 2 victims age 14... killed his father with a machete when aged 18 and ate part of his heart.
   Victims: 75 confirmed, probably over 100.
   Sentence: Currently serving 30 year sentence (maximum allowed Brazil).
   
   
   
8. Richard Cottingham... "The Torso Killer":
   Where: New York, U.S.A.
   When: 1967 - 1980.
   How: One of the most gruesome serial killers, Cottingham killed prostitutes then cut off their heads, arms and legs (and sometimes cut or bit off their breasts) often leaving just a torso behind.
   
   A computer operator for an insurance company, Cottingham carried handcuffs, knives, a gag, "slave collars", and a fake gun in his brief case.
   Victims: Officially 6 but he claimed 85 - 100 murders.
   Sentence: Life imprisonment.
   
   
   
   
   
9. Gary Ridgway..."Green River Killer":
   
   Where:Washington, U.S.A.
   When:1982 - 2000.
   How: Would strangle prostitutes in King County, dumping the first 5 bodies in the Green River... confessed to engaging in more sex afterwards with the dead bodies. His 3 ex-wives and several girlfriends said he demanded sex several times a day, often in public areas.
   Victims: Confessed to 72, but probably over 90.
   Sentence: Life imprisonment without parole.
   
   
   
   
   
10. Albert Fish... "Brooklyn Vampire", "Boogey Man", Werewolf of Wysteria":
    
    Where: New York, U.S.A.
    When: 1924 - 1932.
    How: Fish came from a family with a history of mental illness. The most sickening feature of these murders was his cannibalism, and how he wrote to family members afterwards describing how he butchered and cooked his victims. Serial killers don't come any worse or sicker than this.
    

    Albert Fish wrote to the parents of 10 year-old victim Grace Budd... "I choked her to death, then cut her in small pieces so I could take my meat to my rooms. Cook and eat it. How sweet and tender her little ass was roasted in the oven. It took me 9 days to eat her entire body. I did not f*** her tho I could of had I wished. She died a virgin".
    
    

    He confessed to 4 year-old Billy Gaffney's mother... "I cut off his ears, nose, slit his mouth from ear to ear. Gouged out his eyes... I stuck the knife in his belly and held my mouth to his body and drank his blood... (after describing in detail how he butchered the body)... I made a stew out of his ears, nose, and pieces of his face and belly. I put onions, carrots, turnips, celery, salt and pepper. It was good. Then I split the cheeks of his behind open, cut off his monkey and pee wees and washed them first. I put strips of bacon on each cheek of his behind and put them in the oven... I never ate any roast turkey that tasted half as good as his sweet fat little behind did".... ref: Wikipedia.

    Victims: 4 confirmed, probably around 100.
    Sentence: Executed by electric chair in 1936.
    
    

Meanwhile, in Texas September 2011...