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Serial Killers 7
Herman Mudgett
Holmes, properly known as Herman Webster Mudgett, killed twenty-seven people at his house in Chicago. Like Ted Bundy he was a handsome man and a favourite with the ladies.
Holmes first married in 1878 while still a student, and in 1886 contracted a bigamous marriage with Myrta Belknap. He took to fraud as a means of livelihood, and in 1888 worked in Chicago as a drugstore chemist. The female boss disappeared in 1890, leaving Holmes in command of a business which thrived on sales of patent medicine.
Holmes shared a flat above the store with a Jeweller called Icilius Conner and his his wife Julia who acted as Holmes's secretary. Holmes purchased a large vacant plot accross the road from the drugstore to build a hotel. The Gothic-style hotel resembled a castle and had 100 rooms. The hotel, aptly named 'Holmes's Castle' was designed by Benjamin F. Pitzel, and completed in 1891. Many people stayed at Holmes's castle and many disappeared, including Conners' wife and her daughter.
An insurance fraud by Holmes which resulted in the death of Pitzel took police to Holmes's hotel, but Holmes had fled. He was captured in Philadelphia and charged with embezzlement and later with murder.
The police searched Holmes's castle and discovered a death house. Some of the rooms had chutes which led to the basement below, used as a victim cargo route. The basement contained vats of acid, airtight rooms with gas inlets, windowless torture rooms containing trays of surgical instruments. Also found were several female skeletons.
At Holmes’s trial in 1895, in which Holmes acted as his own defence, a mechanic told of how he had worked for Holmes stripping flesh from bodies which he thought had come from the city mortuary. Holmes was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. While awaiting execution Holmes confessed to twenty-seven killings. He was hanged at Philadelphia’s Moyamensing prison on 7 May 1896.
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Aileen Wuornos
Near Christmas time, 1989, the body of Richard Mallory was found in woods in Ormond Beach, Florida. He had been shot 4 times with a .22 handgun. Twelve more months past, 6 more dead men were found. All the victims were middle aged and found near highways. They had been robbed of money and valuable possessions, and their cars had been stolen and found shortly afterwards. All the victims had been shot by a .22 handgun.
The FBI knew that there was one or two female serial killers on the loose. If the killer/s was male, there had been no evidence of homosexual activity. It was clear that the motive wasn't just gain.
The announcement of a female serial killer set the media into a frenzy. Soon after witnesses came forward to give police descriptions of two women seen abandoning a car belonging to that of one of the dead men.
The descriptions were released in December 1990, soon after people came forward who recognised the pictures as 28-year-old Tyria J. Moore and 34-year-old Aileen Wuornos. Moore was arrested by police and agreed to testify against Wuornos, who was her lesbian partner.
In January 1991 Wuornos was arrested and confessed to killing the men in self defense as they had tried to rape her. The question raised that brought her claims to be false was why would a woman shoot several men who had supposedly tried rape her in the space of just 12 months. She also told of how Moore was not involved in any of the crimes committed. She then went to go on about her past of how her grandfather had sexually abused her and that she was raped at 13.
Moore was released and Wournos faced trial. In court the evidence summed up and Wuornos was sentenced to the electric chair.
Wournos was unlike other female serial killers, who's motive is usually profit. But in this case the motive seemed to be revenge, because Wuornos had been raped and abused by men.
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Belle Gunnness
In 1908 Belle Gunness enticed fourteen men to her farm in Laporte, Indiana, by promising them marriage. She would drug them in their sleep, steal their wallets, and kill them and later burn the body. Her motive was gain.
Her accomplice and lover was Ray Lamphere who worked as a handyman on the farm. Belle was widowed when her husband died from an accident on the farm leaving her alone with their 3 children, soon after she fell in love with Lamphere.
Gunness advertised in the newspapers in Chicago for suitors. Many men replied, went to the farm, and were killed.
In 1908 Andrew Helgelien replied to the ad and headed to the farm, with him he carried a substantial amount of money to which Belle said was needed to pay off a mortgage on the farm.
On 28 April 1908 the Gunness farm was destroyed by a fire. Inside the ruins they discovered a badly burnt female body which they thought was Belle and 3 dead children. They were not sure of the identity of the female body though as it had been decapitated. It seemed that the woman had been killed and the farm burned to destroy evidence. The police found Belle's denture in the ashes and were convinced that the corpse was that of Belle. After digging in the farm they discovered the corpses of 14 men, including that of Andrew Helgelien.
Ray Lamphere was arrested on suspicion of murder, he also told the police of his affair with Belle. Lamphere was charged with murder and arson and sentenced to 21 years in the Indiana State Penitentiary. In prison Lamphere told a cellmate that Belle had lured a woman to the farm for means of a corpse, then burned down the farm containing the dead body. She had then thrown her denture in the fire and escaped with the money of her victims. True or not, Belle Gunness was never seen again.
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Dean Corll
Dean Corll, who was a 33-year-old electrician and a homosexual serial killer, murdered up to 27 boys along with other accomplices in Houston.
On 8 August 1973, 18-year-old Wayne Henley called police to tell them that he had killed Corll in his house at Pasadena. Corll, a homosexual with sadistic tastes, had been shot 6 times with a .22 pistol. His house had a torture room in which the furniture consisted of a wooden board with handcuffs fitted at each top corner and rope knots at each bottom corner.
Henley told of Corll’s dope parties, and how he sodomized boys on his torture board before killing them. Reference to the names of three boys known to be missing led the police to a boat-shed rented by Corll in Houston. The police found the bodies of seventeen boys under the floor of the boat shed, and ten more were found at other burial sites.
Henley said that Corll, whom he had known for about three years, paid him a head to get potential victims for him. Corll loved to play with children; he took them for rides in his car and gave them candy. He was known as ‘a real good neighbour and a real good guy’.
Corll arranged children’s parties to help Henley and his accomplices set up prospective victims for his torture room. He strangled and shot the boys, whom he sexually abused and mutilated. But the murders stopped in Pasadena, when Corll lost his domination and was shot dead by Henley. Henley told how after a dope session with Corll, he woke up on the torture board, he talked his way out and when released, he shot Corll dead.
Wayne Henley, who admitted killing some of the victims, was tried for murder in July 1974. He was Found guilty and sentenced to six 99-year terms of imprisonment. His killing of Dean Corll was judged to be a justifiable homicide.
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Henry Lee Lucas
On 15 June 1983 while in jail for a minor weapons offence, and on suspicion of two murders, Henry Lee Lucas admitted killing over three-hundred and fifty people.
Lucas had spent most of his life from 1960 to 1975 in jail. After his release he had an unsuccessful marriage (which ended when his wife realised he was having sex with her two small girls) and lived for a while with his sister Wanda, leaving when she accused him of sexually abusing her young daughter.
In 1978 Lucas was to meet his lover and friend Ottis Toole in a soup kitchen in Jacksonville, Florida. Ottis Toole had a long prison record for car stealing and petty theft, and he invited Lucas back home, where he was soon regarded as a member of the family.
In 1982 Lucas fled with Ottis and his niece, 12-year-old Becky Powell (who was slightly retarded and grew up in a house of incest) and her younger brother Frank. They lived on the proceeds of robbery - mostly small grocery stores.
Soon after Lucas and Becky fell in love.
Lucas told of how they drifted around the country killing from person to person. Lucas and Toole killed many people and sometimes Becky and Frank would join in. Lucas was a necrophiliac and Toole was a cannibal. Toole also got sexually stimulated from lighting fires and burning down houses.
Eventually, Frank and Toole returned home to Florida, while Becky and Lucas continued on the road.
Becky soon became homesick, and begged Lucas to take her back to Florida. Henry agreed and they set out hitch-hiking.
One night Lucas argued about her decision to go home, Becky had lost her temper and struck him in the face. Instantly Lucas grabbed a carving knife and stabbed her in the heart killing her instantly. After he violated her body.
Lucas’ confessions led police to some missing bodies. He was soon considered as the worst mass murderer in USA’s history.
Lucas also told of how Toole killed a man who was sleeping by pouring petrol on him and igniting it. Toole, who was already serving a fifteen year sentence for arson admitted it and was subsequently sentenced to death.
Many of Henry Lee Lucas’ confessions were later withdrawn by him saying they were false.
It is not known how many murders he did commit, some say it was at least two hundred murders committed alone, and sixty five by himself and Ottis Toole. It has also been said that Lucas' amount was really just about 7 victims and that his 300+ tally was made up when he would look at old victim reports the police gave him, his real tally is unknown but is widely accepted over the 300+ mark.
Lucas has spent most of his life in jail and is facing a subsequent death sentence.
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John Haigh - The Acid Bath Killer
On the 18 February 1949, 39-year-old John George Haigh had invited 69-year-old Olive Durand-Deacon to his factory in Sussex, which was in fact just a small store room. He had recently become friendly with her, telling her of his ideas to market cosmetics.
After driving Mrs Durand-Deacon to the factory he shot her dead with his .38 Webley revolver. He stripped her body of all valuables and put her body into a forty gallon drum. He then filled it with sulphuric acid which over time destroyed the body to sludge, he would then dump the remaining fragments outside the factory in the dirt.
Haigh then went to the police station and reported that Mrs Durand-Deacon was missing. Suspicious police discovered that he had a criminal record and investigated him and visited his factory.
Inside the factory they discovered a recently used firearm. They also found traces of blood and fragments of Mrs Durand-Deacon. When Haigh was arrested on suspicion of murder he told police that he had killed her but they could not prove murder without a body. Mrs Durand-Deacon's dentist identified a denture found at the factory which had survived the acid as belonging to her.
Haigh admitted to killing eight people, all of which he disposed of the body by bathing it in acid. His motive was gain, by collecting the valuables of his victims.
Haigh was tried in July 1949, he was found guilty and executed in Wandsworth Prison on 10 August 1949.
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John Christie
55-year-old John Christie lived with his wife at 10 Rillington Place in London. At the top floor lived 24-year-old Timothy Evans with his wife and baby daughter.
On 30 November 1949 Evans went to a police station and told them of how he found his wife dead in their home, worried of being accused he hid her body down a drain. The police however discovered Evans wife and baby daughter's strangled bodies in the backyard.
Evans confessed to the murders but later he accused his neighbour, John Christie of the murders. Evans went to trial in 1950 were Christie took the stand as a witness. Christie denied involvement in any murder and was believed. Evans was found guilty of the murder of his daughter and sentenced to death. He was hanged on 9 March 1950.
In March of 1953 a new tenant of 10 Rillington Place discovered the dead bodies of 3 women when opening a sealed papered-over cupboard. The police were notified and conducted a search of the grounds which revealed another 3 bodies - 6 in total.
The former tenant, John Christie, was arrested and confessed to 7 murders, of those victims one was Christie's wife.
Christie's motives were sexual, his modus operandi was to invite the woman victim to his house where he would then get them drunk and rape and strangle them.
Christie also confessed to the murder of Mrs Evans but denied murdering the Evans baby. An official enquiry into the Evans murders concluded that the murder case against Evans was found proven. It seems unlikely that there could be two murderers as neighbours - especially when the Evans were killed by Christie's method of strangulation.
John Christie was tried for the murder of his wife. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged on 15 July 1953. Years later Timothy Evans was granted a posthumus free pardon.
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Richard Ramirez - The Night Stalker
In 1985 the city of Los Angeles was terrorised by a mysterious killer known as the Night Stalker.
The Stalker would break into his victims house, get into the bedroom then shoot the male in the head with a 22., then he would rape and beat the female partner. He would control the woman by threatening violence to her children, although sometimes he would shoot the woman anyway and male children were sometimes sodomized. At times he would ransack the house looking for valuables or sometimes he would not bother at all. And most unusually he would force victims to declare their love for Satan.
All through the spring and summer of 1985 there were more than twenty attacks, most of which involved rape and murder. Survivors described their attacker as a tall and slim hispanic man with black greasy hair and severely decayed teeth.
As a tension of fear grew in the city which employed more security and a description was being circulated, Ramirez went to San Francisco. There he committed another murder. The police checked the hotels for the Night Stalkers description, and one matched but with a false name, and the man had left the day before.
The next murder was back in LA. The Night Stalker killed a man of the house and raped the woman. As he left, the woman caught a glimpse of his cars number plates. The plates were from a stolen car, and when the car was found it had been because it was dumped. The police successfully lifted fingerprints from the car and these matched to a Richard Ramirez, who had a past history of petty theft and burglary.
Ramirez's picture and name was being shown everywhere. As he was about to purchase some groceries he noticed his picture on the front page of newspapers, he immediately ran out af there as other peopel shouted to call the cops.
Ramirez ran into the hispanic area of Los Angeles. He unsuccessfully tried to steal two cars but both times the victim fought him off. One of the victims husbands and a growing crowd chased him down until a police man called to the scene arrested him.
Ramirez confessed to the crimes and the police evidence against him was damning. At trial Ramirez pleaded not guilty and his lawyers used many delaying tactics. It was not until 20 September 1989 that Richard Ramirez was found guilty on all thirteen counts of murder plus thirty other felonies. The jury voted for the death penalty. Ramirez is on death row and wont be executed until sometime after the year 2000.
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Peter Kurten
In 1929, 47-year-old Peter Kurten killed 9 people in Dusseldorf, Germany. The killings dubbed Kurten the nickname 'the Monster of Dusseldorf' because of his sadistic crimes.
Peter Kurten worked in a factory and was a trade unionist. He was married and often attended church. Like many serial killers he indulged in arson before his murdering career began.
The first victim was a 9-year-old girl whom he had stabbed, raped and then partially burnt. From then on Kurten's sadistic nature brought him to kill 8 more people all with different methods of murder accompanied by mutilation.
In May of 1930 Kurten was finally caught by police. Kurten had lured a young woman from the Dusseldorf train station to his house where he then attemted to rape her. He let her go when the woman assured him that she did not know the city well enough to know where he had taken her.
The woman did not tell anyone except for a friend who she had contacted by a letter. The letter was never delivered as it was deemed undeliverable because of an incorrect address, due to this the letter was opened to return to sender. A post office worker realised it's importance and notified the police who then found the girl who led them to Kurten's residence.
Kurten confessed to the killings and was charged with 9 murders in Dusseldorf in April 1931. Kurten was sentenced to death and executed by guillotine in Klingelputz prison on 2 July 1931. Before his death he hoped he might hear his blood gurgle when decapitated.
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Dennis Nilsen
Dennis Nilsen killed fifteen men in the safety of his own flat in London between December 1978 and February 1983.
Nilsen would talk the men into coming to his place where he would get them drunk and strangle them. He then undressed the body and washed it, then he would cut the body into pieces, storing parts into a plastic bag and flushing other parts down the toilet.
Dennis Nilsen was born on the 23 November 1945, the son of a drunk Norweigan soldier. His mother, Betty Whyte, divorced his father eight years later and they moved into his grandparents house. Dennis was heartbroken when his grandfather died as he had been very attached to him, he later stated that this had caused his own emotional death. His mother remarried when he was nine and he effectively turned into a loner, of his first murder committed he explained that his motive was that he was lonely and emotionally hurt.
Nilsen was finally caught when on the 8 February 1983, a drains maitenance engineer was checking on a drainage system in Muswell Hill, London, that had received complaints from tenants that it was blocked. When the engineer checked it he discovered it to be blocked with human flesh, the police were notified immediately.
When a detective asked 37-year-old Nilsen (who was a tenant at the flats) about the blocked drains, Nilsen invited him into his flat. The detective noticed a foul odour, then Nilsen told him that the rest of the body was contained in bags. When Nilsen was arrested, he calmly confessed to killing 15 men. In his flat they found numerous body parts, much of it stored in bags; included in the gruesome collection was 2 severed heads and the lower part of a torso.
On the 4 November 1983, Nilsen was found guilty on 6 charges of murder (even though he had confessed to killing 15) and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
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Nicolas Claux
In the summer of 1994, the parisian "Brigade Criminelle" was investigating a series of random homophobic .22 caliber shootings, when they arrested a 22 years old mortician, Nicolas Claux.
In custody, Claux confessed to one murder, claiming to be a practising satanist. A body search revealed that he was covered in occult tattoos. A search of his appartement in the Pigalle district turned up unidentified skeletal remains, blood bags stolen from a hospital's blood bank, funeral jars filled with human ashes, and hundred of hardcore S/M videotapes.
Described by court psychatrists as being a "nearly psychotic sadist", Nicolas Claux shocked investigators when he described how he enjoyed eating strips of muscles from the corpse lying on the slab of the St Joseph hospital mortuary.
He also described in full details how he prowled the parisian gothic cemetaries, digging coffins and stabbing the corpse inside with a screwdriver, and how he would drink human blood mixed with human ashes and powder protein.
Due to the lack of evidence connecting him to the other crime scenes, Nico was only charged with one count of premeditated murder and six counts of grave robberies. During his trial, psychatrists confirmed that he couldn't be held entirely responsable for his crimes, because he lacked substancial ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his acts and ability to control his impulses, where as the prosecution maintained that he was aware that killing and mutilating corpses was wrong.
On may 1997, the unrepentant necrosadistic cannibal was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 12 years of prison. He will be eligible for parole in late 2000.
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