Famous serial killer in england

He started train-hopping as a young man to get around the country, attacking and burgling random people along the way to sustain himself. He lured American soldiers away from bars and shot and killed them. While only convicted of 3 murders, he actually confessed to killing over twenty people.

Panzram despised humanity and fantasized about killing on a mass scale. Between the years of and , the Milwaukee Cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer raped, killed and violated the remains of 17 young men. Dahmer mostly killed young black men because that was the demographic he was sexually attracted to. He lured them back to his apartment with promises of sex, booze or drugs, then blitz-attacked them and strangled them to death.

Read next: 21 serial killer quotes and the chilling stories behind them. As Dahmer became more confident, he began to drug his victims so he could toy with them while they were still alive.

In some cases, he drilled into their heads and injected them with chemicals in a strange attempt to create human zombies. Dahmer was caught when one of his victims escaped and told the police of the horrors inside his apartment. Sure enough, police found human body parts , castrated penises in jars and hundreds of Polaroids of decapitated bodies. There are a handful of famous killers of the feminine persuasion out there too.

Wuornos was an abused child who went on to become a sex worker who suddenly upped her game when she started murdering her clients. Allegedly, all of these men had hired her for her sexual services but had become violent, so Wuornos naturally retaliated by executing them.

Her tragic story was adapted into the film ' Monster' in , which won actress Charlize Theron an academy award in Back over the pond we go to Manchester, England, where the man dubbed Doctor Death killed a record-breaking number of victims over a 28 year reign of terror. In the UK, Shipman is undoubtedly one of the most famous serial killers of modern times.

On the surface, he looks like your average doctor, but Harold Shipman concealed a horrific secret. He was the most prolific serial killer in known history. Shipman would visit his elderly patients in their homes and administer excessive amounts of morphine into their system; an act which mirrored how his own mother died.

It was later found that Shipman had been falsifying the documents of his dead patients to hide his activities. He denied all allegations, and unfortunately, he committed suicide in his prison cell in , taking all of his secrets to the grave.

The list of serial killers that are still alive gets shorter and shorter by the year. This pillar of the Wichita community lived a double life. He was a loving husband, father and company man, but he moonlighted as the elusive BTK killer, killing entire families and taunting police with mutilated Barbie dolls.

He began in , where he invaded a family home and strangled both parents and two kids. Similar murders followed, and Rader began taunting police with confession letters.

He targeted older women in their homes because he could easily overpower them. Unlike other famous serial killers, Rader was able to subdue his BTK alter ego for years at a time.

He went from to without murdering anyone, and again from to His ego forced him to continue his cat-and-mouse games with the police, which led to his capture. He most likely would have gotten away with his crimes if he could have just led a quiet life and kept to himself. Throughout the sixties and seventies, the Zodiac Killer terrorized the city of New York.

Rumours that the murders were connected intensified in September and October , and letters from a writer or writers purporting to be the murderer were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard. The "From Hell" letter, received by George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, included half of a preserved human kidney, purportedly taken from one of the victims.

Mainly because of the extraordinarily brutal character of the murders, and because of media treatment of the events, the public came increasingly to believe in a single serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper". Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper, and his legend solidified.

A police investigation into a series of eleven brutal killings in Whitechapel up to was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the murders of Five victims: Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly, all murdered between 31 August and 9 November , are known as the "canonical five" and their murders are often considered the most likely to be linked.

As the murders were never solved, the legends surrounding them became a combination of genuine historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory. The term "ripperology" was coined to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper cases. There are now over one hundred theories about the Ripper's identity, and the murders have inspired multiple works of fiction.

The Execution of Margaret Waters. Waters was born in and lived in Brixton. She was known for baby-farming, that is, taking in other women's children for money; a practice often resulting in infanticide.

Waters drugged and starved the infants in her care and is believed to have killed at least 19 children. Charged with five counts of wilful murder as well as neglect and conspiracy, Waters was convicted of murdering an infant named John Walter Cowen.

Her sister, Sarah Ellis, was convicted in the same case for obtaining money under false pretences and sentenced to eighteen months' hard labour. Margaret would then pocket the difference. It was far easier to drug the babies with opiates, which suppressed their appetites leaving them to slowly starve. Margaret would then wrap their frail bodies in brown paper before dumping them on the streets - a common sight in Victorian Britain due to the high cost of burial. Eventually, Margaret was arrested and tried for the wilful murder of John Walter Cowen, the illegitimate son of year-old Janet Tassie Cowen.

Rhoda Willis, or as she was known, tried and convicted as, Leslie James, has that honour. He is currently serving life imprisonment for the murder of five women who worked as prostitutes in Ipswich, Suffolk. The killings took place during late and Wright was found guilty in February Between 30 October and 10 December , Wright murdered five prostitutes in Ipswich.

Forensic evidence led to his arrest on 19 December. At the time of the murders Wright was working as a forklift truck driver. He was found guilty of all five murders on 21 February On the following day, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and the judge recommended that he should never be released. It was announced on 19 March that Wright would be appealing against his convictions. However, on 2 February , it was announced that Wright had decided to drop this appeal case. Wright is still being investigated in connection with other unsolved murders and disappearances.

Called the "Acid Bath Murderer" for dissolving his victims in sulphuric acid under the belief that he could not be prosecuted for murder if no body was found. He would then forge papers to sell the victims possessions. Confessed nine murders, convicted of six and hanged. He was convicted of the murders of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine. He used acid not to kill his victims but in what he believed to be a foolproof method of body disposal: he would dissolve their bodies in concentrated sulphuric acid before forging papers to be able to sell their possessions and collect substantial sums of money.

During the investigation, it became apparent that Haigh was using the acid to destroy victims' bodies because he misunderstood the meaning of the term corpus delicti, thinking that, if victims' bodies could not be found, a murder conviction would not be possible.

The substantial forensic evidence, notwithstanding the absence of his victims' bodies, was sufficient for him to be convicted for the murders and subsequently executed.

She was tried and hanged for one murder, but there is little doubt she was responsible for many more similar deaths—possibly or more.

Amelia Elizabeth Dyer was a 'baby farmer'. Someone who, for a fee, would look after children, usually illegitimate, until a home could be found for them. Born in and raised in Bristol to respectable parents and trained as a nurse before deciding that 'adopting' illegitimate infants was a more lucrative career.

In she was sentenced to six months' hard labour after being found guilty on a charge of neglect. A doctor had become suspicious of the number of infants who had died while in Mrs Dyer's care and had reported the matter to the authorities. On her release she spent several periods in mental institutions before resuming her child-care activities. In she moved to Kensington Road, Reading and began advertising. It was not long before small bodies were being fished out of the Thames.

One of the bodies recovered had a tape around its neck and was wrapped in a parcel. The paper enclosing the corpse had an address on it and this was traced to Mrs Dyer. The tiny corpse was identified as Helena Fry. Dyer was eventually arrested on 4th April By May, seven tiny bodies had been recovered from the Thames, all had the tape around their necks and all were parcelled.

Three of the bodies were identified as four-month-old Doris Marmon, thirteen-month-old Harry Simmonds and the daughter of Elizabeth Goulding. The others were to remain unidentified. She soon confessed, saying "You'll know all mine by the tape around their necks. She came to trial at the Old Bailey in May charged with just the murder of Doris Marmon, to which she pleaded guilty.

The defence tried to prove insanity but failed, despite her dubious mental history. The jury took five minutes to find Dyer guilty and she was sentenced to death.

James Billington hanged her at Newgate on 10th June Police suspected that at least 20 other children had disappeared in a similar manner in the few months before her arrest. Irish sailor who murdered two families and their servants in London's East End by bashing their heads with a hammer and cutting their throats. Hanged himself in prison while awaiting trial. The Ratcliff Highway murders sometimes Ratcliffe Highway murders were two vicious attacks on two separate families that resulted in seven fatalities.

The two attacks occurred within twelve days in December , in homes half a mile apart near Wapping in London. A principal suspect in the murders, John Williams also known as Murphy , was a lodger at the nearby Pear Tree public house in Old Wapping. He was a year-old Scottish or Irish seaman.

He had nursed a grievance against Marr from when they were shipmates, but the subsequent murders at the Kings Arms remain unexplained. Williams was arrested, but committed suicide by hanging himself, in Coldbath Fields Prison. His corpse was dragged through the streets, in a cart, that paused by the scene of the murders. His body was pitched into a hole and was buried, with a stake through its heart, at the junction of Commercial Road and Cannon Street Road. In August , the skeleton of John Williams with a stake driven through it was discovered during the excavation of a trench by a gas company.

The landlord of the Crown and Dolphin public house, at the corner of Cannon Street Road, retained the skull as a souvenir. The thriving cheap newspapers spread the news round the country, as the gruesome details of the violence leaked out over the days after the two incidents. This became one of the first national shock stories to circulate in Britain.

Speculation on who killed the innocent families, and why, kept the story alive right through to the burial of the eventually accused man. Peter Thomas Anthony Manuel 13 March — 11 July was an American-born Scottish serial killer who was convicted of murdering seven people across Lanarkshire and southern Scotland between and his arrest in January , and is believed to have murdered two more.

Prior to his arrest, the media nicknamed the unidentified killer "the Beast of Birkenshaw". Manuel was hanged at Glasgow's Barlinnie Prison; he was one of the last prisoners to die on the Barlinnie gallows.

Manuel was tried in for the murders of eight people. One case against him was thrown out of court; another, committed in England, was attributed to him. The crimes were committed over a period of 59 days between February and April in the children's ward at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Lincolnshire, where Allitt was employed as a State Enrolled Nurse.

She administered large doses of insulin to at least two victims and a large air bubble was found in the body of another, but police were unable to establish how all the attacks were carried out. In May , at Nottingham Crown Court, she received thirteen life sentences Leslie Bailey. Robert Black. Robert Black 21 April — 12 January was a Scottish serial killer and paedophile who was convicted of the kidnap, rape, sexual assault and murder of four girls aged between 5 and 11 in a series of killings committed between and in the United Kingdom.

Black was convicted of the kidnapping, rape and murder of three girls on 19 May He was also convicted of the kidnapping of a fourth girl, and had earlier been convicted of the kidnapping and sexual assault of a fifth. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he serve a minimum of 35 years. Black was further convicted of the sexual assault and murder of nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy in , Ian Brady. Brady is known primarily for his role in a series of murders that took place in Greater Manchester between and These were dubbed the Moors murders, as several victims were buried along the Saddleworth Moor near Oldham in Lancashire.

Myra Hindley. The couple became knows as the "Moors Murderers. William Burke. George Chapman. He is suspected by some of being Jack the Ripper. Born in Congress Poland, he moved to England as an adult, where he committed his crimes. Chapman was convicted and executed after poisoning three women, but is remembered today mostly because some contemporary police officers suspected him of being the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper.

John Christie. Mary Ann Cotton. It is likely that she murdered three of her four husbands, apparently in order to collect on their insurance policies, and many others. She may have murdered as many as 21 people, including 11 of her 13 children. She chiefly used arsenic poisoning, causing gastric pain and rapid decline of health.

Thomas Neill Cream. He was hanged in in London. Thomas Neill Cream 27 May — 15 November , also known as the Lambeth Poisoner, was a Scottish-Canadian serial killer, who claimed his first proven victims in the United States and the rest in England, and possibly others in Canada and Scotland.

Cream, who poisoned his victims, was executed after his attempts to frame others for his crimes brought him to the attention of London police. Unsubstantiated rumours suggested his last words as he was being hanged were a confession that he was Jack the Ripper—even though he was supposed to be in prison at the time of the Ripper murders. Amelia Dyer. She was executed in Trained as a nurse, and widowed in , she turned to baby farming — the practice of adopting unwanted infants in exchange for money — in order to support herself.

She initially cared for the children legitimately, in addition to having two of her own, but whether intentionally or not, a number of them died in her care, leading to a conviction for negligence and six months' hard labour. She then began directly murdering children she "adopted", strangling at least some of them, and disposing of the bodies in Kenneth Erskine. Kenneth Erskine born July 1, is a British serial killer who became known as the Stockwell Strangler.

John George Haigh. He was convicted for the murders of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine. He battered to death or shot his victims and disposed of their bodies using sulphuric acid before forging their signatures so he could sell their possessions and collect large sums of money. Anthony Hardy. He died in prison at age Anthony John Hardy born 31 May is an English serial killer who is known as the Camden Ripper for dismembering some of his victims.

In November , he was sentenced to three life terms for three murders, but he may have killed up to nine people. Trevor Hardy. Trevor Joseph Hardy 11 June — 25 September , also known as the Beast of Manchester, was a convicted English serial killer who murdered three teenage girls in the Manchester area between December and March In , he was found guilty on three charges of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment, remaining in prison until his death 35 years later.

Colin Ireland. Colin Ireland 16 March — 21 February was a British serial killer known as the Gay Slayer because his victims were homosexual. Criminologist David Wilson believes that Ireland was a psychopath.

Ireland suffered a severely dysfunctional upbringing. This killer had the whole country on watch as he committed his mysterious murders. The Suffolk Strangler was responsible for the deaths of five prostitutes. The case baffled police, though, as none of the women had been victim to any sort of sexual assault.

They were all strangled. Quickly police had narrowed down their search to a construction worker named Steven Wright. His trial received a lot of attention, and he was sentenced to serve multiple life sentences.

Mary Ann Cotton was perhaps the first woman to join the line of England serial killers responsible for the deaths of up to 21 people. She is thought that she murdered three of her four husbands for the insurance money.

Cotton may have also killed 11 of her 13 children, too. Her weapon of choice was poison. She would use arsenic to slowly poison her victims causing their health to decline rapidly until they eventually die.

She was convicted of the murder of her stepson and was hanged on March 24, These serial killers England are quite possibly among the worst humans to have lived in England. I have always wondered what makes people succumb to madness and become a serial killer. I do not think any life experience, as bad as it may seem.

I know people who survived the Holocaust as young children. None of them became a serial killer.