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Everyone likes a good murder mystery – but only in movies and shows. Things become really unsettling when you read about people committing these heinous crimes in real life.
Here are some of the most feared serial killers, with stories so disturbing, it will take you a while to recover.
1. Ted Bundy
A cold-blooded murderer, Bundy confessed his involvement in 30 homicides across 7 states. He was also accused of kidnapping, rape, burglary and necrophilia and even having revisited the dead bodies for performing sexual acts.
With several documentaries and now a movie on his life, Bundy remains one of the most feared criminals in history and someone people can’t seem to get out of their heads. He was executed by electrocution in 1989. He infamously called himself ‘the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you’ll ever meet’ once.
2. The Zodiac
There are 5 murders and 2 injuries confirmed under his name but he is said to have been behind at least 37 killings. Zodiac remained free through the course of investigation and is still unidentified after nearly 5 decades of committing those crimes.
While there are still speculations about the killer’s real name, people address him as Zodiac because that is what he called himself in the letters written to a local press in San Francisco. In these letters, he left cryptographic messages and till date, only one of them remains solved. Reminds you of a certain Fincher movie? Me too.
3. Ahmad Suradji
Suradji, also known as Datuk, admitted to killing more than 40 women between 1986 and 1997 in Indonesia. He took the women to the sugarcane field in front of his house and buried them waist-deep, before strangling them to death.
He had their saliva and took off their clothes to speed up the decomposition process. After this, he buried them again with heads facing towards his house in hope of becoming more powerful. Datuk said that he did all this to become a mystic healer, as advised by his father in a dream.
4. Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo
Tried for 53 killings and convicted for 52 – Chikatilo or Butcher of Rostov – was charged for murder, mutilation and assault.
Chikatilo was a teacher by profession and had 5 charges of sexually assaulting minors. When interrogated about his indifference towards the gender of those he murdered, he said, “I did not need to look for them. Every step I took, they were there”.
5. Donald Henry Gaskins
Found guilty for 8 murders, Gaskins claimed that he had killed 90-110 people. Having a troubled childhood, he turned to crime early on in life and murdered an inmate when he was completing his sentence.
Gaskins also escaped prison once but was re-arrested. He was executed by electrocution in 1991, after his repeated attempts to commit suicide by slitting wrists and swallowing a blade.
6. Tsutomu Miyazaki
This Japanese serial killer murdered young girls and performed sexual acts with their bodies. He also kept their body parts as trophies and sent postcards to his family describing the murder.
Hanged in 2008, Miyazaki blamed his alter ego ‘rat man‘ for making him commit the murders.
7. Luis Garavito
Columbian rapist and serial killer, Garavito was convicted for 138 murders while that number could be anything between 100 to 400.
His victims were boys between the age of 6 and 16 and belonged to an underprivileged background. Garavito was handed a sentenced for 1,853 years and 9 days – which was later reduced because of limitations in Colombian law.
8. Alexander Pichushkin
Pichushkin is believed to have killed 48 people, most of whom were homeless men lured into his house by using vodka as bait.
The chilling account of murder states that he killed them by repeated hammer blows.
9. Charles Edmund Cullen
A nurse by profession, Cullen confessed that he killed 30-40 of his elderly patients in New Jersy but the actual number could be 300 or more.
He said that he killed the patients by poisoning them and relieved them from suffering, just like an ‘angel’. He was handed to 18 consecutive life sentences and is not eligible for a parole until 2403.
10. Patrick Wayne Kearney
Known as the ‘trash bag killer’ or ‘freeway killer’, Kearney confessed to murder of homosexual men between 1973-1977.
He used to wrap their bodies in a trash bag and throw them along the California highways. He was convicted for 21 murders but was imprisoned for life by the law because of the claim of killing 43 people.