Besides Charles Manson, here are five serial killers in the U.S. that can be considered truly awful humans. Some may seem familiar; some, you may have never heard of. Thanks to Biography.com, I have put together some information on each individual and their horrific crimes against women, men, children and couples.
1. Ted Bundy
Ted raped and killed at least 36 women, and although this is the only known number, there are said to be one hundred more. He was said to have selected his women based off of a college relationship that abruptly ended . This relationship was eventually the trigger to his killing spree. It is said that the women he choose resembled his college girlfriends, (attractive students with long, dark hair.) Oddly enough, Ted graduated with a degree in Psychology and later pursued law school. In 1974, he moved to Utah, where he would attend law school. Suddenly, women began disappearing around him. Shortly after moving to Utah, the police were able to link him to the murders. in 1975, he was arrested for the kidnapping of Carol DaRonch, she was one of the few able to escape his kidnappings. Finally, in 1979, after escaping custody in 1977, he was convicted for two murders of Chi Omega Sorority murders. He was eventually given the death penalty for those crimes.
2. The Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer is believed to be responsible for at least five murders in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s. He or she is said to have shot and fatally killed young couples in their parked cars on both December 20, 1968 and July 5, 1969. Within an hour of the last incident, a man called the Vallejo Police Department, giving them the location of the crime scene and claiming responsibility for both that attack and the 1968 murders of Faraday and Jensen. Not too long after these murders, he or she tormented both the police and the San Francisco Examiner during the summer months. He or she did this by specifically writing threatening letters, claiming, "Dear Editor: This is the Zodiac speaking . . .” it also described the murders in detail and taunted police for not having been able to crack his code or catch him. Even though they searched and searched, they were never able to actually capture The Zodiac Killer, he is said to have moved on to a different country but no one actually knows to this day. In May of 2014, a man claimed his biological father was The Zodiac Killer, and trying to prove this, he included swatches of bloody clothing as proof of his claims of killing as many as 37 people.
3. John Wayne Gray
After being convicted of sexual assault in 1968, it was discovered that he had gone on to kill 33 young males, burying most under his home. He was found guilty in 1980 and given multiple death penalty and life sentences. He was executed by lethal injection on May 10, 1994. Not only did Gray murder his victims, he would sexually assault them. The craziest part, when he killed them he sometimes dressed up as his alter ego,"Pogo The Clown." He was eventually found guilty of the 33 murders, and charged with 12 death sentences.
4. Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey is said to have had compulsions to murder and necrophilia (an erotic attraction to corpses) when he was 14; his stressor that evidentally caused him to go on his spree is that his parents were going through a rough divorce at the time. This ultimately made his thoughts turn into actions. Dahmer's killing spree lasted for more than 13 years. During that time, he sought out mostly African-American men at gay bars, malls and bus stops, lured them home with promises of money or sex, and gave them alcohol laced with drugs, before strangling them to death. He would then engage in sex acts with the corpses before dismembering them and disposing of them, often keeping their genitals or skulls as souvenirs. He was eventually captured in 1991 and sentenced to 16 life terms. Sadly, (not really), he was killed by a fellow prison inmate in 1994.
5. Gary Ridgway
Ridgway began his murders in 1982, after being married three times. Once he was caught, he admitted killing at least 75-80 women along Route 99 in south King County, Washington. Ridgway would track down runaways and prostitutes on Route 99, he would bring them to his home where he would strangle them and leave them in remote areas. He eventually became known as the, "Green River Killer."
