list of serial killers

According to the FBI, serial killers (also called serial murderers) are criminals who have committed at least two homicides in separate events and at different times. Individuals who commit multiple murders in a single incident are considered mass murderers.

The United States has the most documented serial killers in the world. According to various sources, the country has had more than 3,500 serial killers since 1900. The next closest countries are Russia and the United Kingdom, which both have more than 190 serial killers.

While the exact number is unknown, numerous serial killers are never caught. Notable examples of unidentified serial killers include Jack the Ripper, who murdered at least five women in London in 1888; the Zodiac killer, who is believed to have murdered at least five people in northern California between 1968 and 1969; and the Monster of Florence, a killer or killers who murdered at least 16 people in the hills outside Florence, Italy, between 1968 and 1985. The latter case inspired Thomas Harris’s novel Hannibal (1999).

Learn about five notorious cold cases in the United States.

Notable American serial killers include David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”), who killed 6 people in New York City in 1976–77; Ted Bundy, a killer and rapist who confessed to 28 murders but may have actually killed hundreds in the late 20th century; Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered 17 people and engaged in cannibalism and necrophilia; John Wayne Gacy, whose killing of 33 men in the 1970s shocked his community, where he performed as a clown at charity events; and Ed Gein, who inspired the horror films Psycho (1960), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).