Famous Serial Killers
by Caitlin Ryan
Gary Ridgway - The Green River Killer- Washington (state) and California
Gary Ridgway had a low IQ of only 82. He started killing when he was only 16. He was initially convicted of only 49 murders, but later admitted to even more. 71 were confirmed, but it is believed to be over 90. He confused the police with gum and cigarettes of other people, and he crossed state lines to get rid of the bodies so the police would have difficulty identifying them. He said he killed so many people he lost count. He mainly targeted women or men who lived or work on the streets.
Jeffrey Dahmer
Dahmer was born in Wisconsin in 1960. He was neglected as a child because his parents had no time for him. His mother was an addict to certain pills and his father helping her recover from suicide attempts. When he was young, he would dismember corpses of dead animals found on the side of the road, among many other things. His dad, unknowingly, taught his son how to bleach bones and how to keep and preserve them. He also taught Dahmer how to use bleach safely because he thought his son was showing interest in science and his father's job as a chemist. He raped, murdered, and dismembered 16 men and boys from 1978-1991. He also started participating in necrophilia (look it up), cannibalism and preservation of body parts. In July 1994 someone tried to kill him, but he recovered from the wounds. In November 1994 he was found bludgeoned to death in the showers of the prison multiple times by fellow inmates.
Ted Bundy
Bundy was a kidnapper, rapist, necrophile, and serial killer. Bundy was born without a father, and for some of his childhood he lived with his maternal grandparents. This was probably the cause for some of his violence. His grandfather was a tyrant in his household. He beat his wife and dog. He abused neighborhood animals. He once through Bundy's aunt down a flight of stairs because she overslept. Bundy was said to be handsome, and he faked an injury so used that to get women to follow him. He would behead the victims and keep them, because he's creepy that way. He was only arrested for 3 murders, but he ended up killing at least 30. He died in the electric chair in 1989.
John Wayne Gacy- The Killer Clown
He is probably one of the reasons everyone is afraid of clowns. He was a rapist and serial killer. He killed a minimum of 33 men and boys in Chicago, Illinois. He strangled most of his victims (except for his first that he stabbed). He put the bodies in a crawl space in his house or buried them on his property. He also left some of their bodies in the Des Plaines River. His father was verbally and physically abusive to him, and a family friend would molest him as a child. He worked as a mortuary attendant. He spent 14 years on death row, and then he was killed by lethal injection.
Luis Garavito from Columbia
A child rapist and murderer from Columbia. He admitted to 147 rapes, tortures, and murders of young boys. They were usually kids living on the street. He would offer them food or drink and them bring them on a walk. He later drew a map in prison to pinpoint where he left the bodies, but there were over 300 bodies mapped out. His childhood isn't very detailed, but he said he was physically and mentally abused by his father and sexually abused as a child. He was captured in April 1999. His jail sentence was originally just 30 years because that is the maximum time you can spend in jail in Columbia. Since he helped police find the bodies, that was reduced to 22 years, and it could be even more reduced if he has good behavior.
Sources
Wikipedia.com
CNN.com
BBC.co.uk