10 of History’s Most Deranged Serial Killers

Are serial killers born, or are they a product of their environment? This question has been raised repeatedly about the worst criminals in history. Experts still cannot quite answer this question, maybe because the answer is that many factors contribute to the making of a serial killer.

There are obviously many things inherently wrong with any serial killer. However, the ten on our list are on another level of deranged—from their motivations to their idiosyncratic killing methods.

Get to know the most deranged serial killers in history.

1. Ted Bundy (1946 to 1989)

Handsome, charismatic, and smart—these are just some of the adjectives people have used to describe Ted Bundy. However, this dashing man used his charm to kidnap, rape, and kill dozens of women in the 1970s.

Bundy eventually confessed to 30 murders in seven states between 1974 and 1978. Police suspect the true number of victims to be higher.

Even after his confession, people continued to be hypnotized by Bundy. So much so that he’s been a subject of many films, TV series, and documentaries. His good looks and natural charisma enchanted women even when he was in prison.

Bundy used his infamous 1968 Volkswagen Beetle as a prop when he talked to women and asked for help with his car. The vehicle is currently on display at the Alcatraz East Crime Museum.

But how deranged was Bundy? The dozens of murders should already provide a clue. Bundy was also reportedly a necrophiliac and said to have decapitated 12 victims and kept the heads as souvenirs of his hard work.

He also defended himself in numerous trials claiming that his defense lawyers were sabotaging his chances of dismissal. His charm didn’t work with juries because he was sentenced to death via electric chair. Bundy was executed in 1989.

2. Andrei Chikatilo (1939 to 1994)

Known as the Rostov Ripper or Butcher of Rostov, Andrei Chikatilo confessed to 56 murders and was charged with 53. He was eventually convicted of 52 murders of women and children and was executed by gunshot on Valentine’s Day, 1994.

Chikatilo’s crimes went largely under the radar for three decades. He sexually assaulted, murdered, and mutilated his victims. He committed most of his crimes in the Rostov Oblast in Russia.

According to various accounts, Chikatilo grew up a model student who earned high marks in school. However, he suffered from chronic impotence, which led to severe self-hatred. When classmates and friends began teasing him about his condition, he ran away from his hometown and ended up in Rostov Oblast.

Chikatilo committed his first known crime when he was 17, although he was never tried for the incident. He jumped his sister’s 11-year-old friend, held her down, and ejaculated while the girl tried to get away from him.

It only got worse from there. He was linked to half a dozen murders in 1984, but there was only evidence to arrest and imprison him for an unrelated theft. He only spent three months in jail.

Chikatilo’s luck ran out in 1990 when police bulked up security in mass transit systems to prevent the Rostov Ripper from killing again. One evening, after killing a 22-year-old woman, Chikatilo was caught by a policeman washing his hands and face on a well. Suspicious, the policeman questioned Chikatilo about where he had been and what he was doing. When the policeman went back to the station and reported him—it turned out many law enforcement officers knew about him.

The Rostov Ripper denied all accusations until he had to face psychologist Alexandr Bukhanovsky, whom police asked to help in the case. Within two hours, the serial killer burst into tears and confessed to the crimes connected to him.

In an interview, Chikatilo once described the killings as him turning into a “crazed wolf”.

3. Elizabeth Bathory, aka The Blood Countess (1560 to 1614)

Was she a serial killer or a vampire? There are many theories about who Elizabeth Bathory really was. She has been linked to hundreds of murders of women and girls.

The story of The Blood Countess highlights the unequal treatment of rich and poor criminals. While Bathory’s accomplices—four of her servants—were tried and convicted, Bathory was only sentenced to house arrest in the Castle of Csejte.

Many described the Hungarian countess as the most prolific female serial killer of all time. Growing up, she had bouts of epilepsy, prompting physicians to order different potions and treatments. Rumors abound regarding these procedures—it’s said that blood was rubbed on her lips during one of her seizures, which could have triggered her vampire-like qualities.

At age 15, Bathory married Ferenc Nadasdy, who took the Bathory family name because he was from a lower social status. When Nadasdy led the Hungarian troops to war against the Ottoman Empire, Bathory was left to manage the castle. This was when the killings reportedly began. It wasn’t until Nadasdy’s death in 1604 that Bathory became a subject of an investigation.

With the help of her servants, Bathory reportedly tortured up to 600 women and children and bathed them in their own blood. Bathory was never tried for her crimes, but she was not allowed to leave her castle until she died in 1614.

4. Jeffrey Dahmer (1960 to 1994)

The Milwaukee Cannibal or Milwaukee Monster? Both refer to one person: Jeffrey Dahmer, who was accused of raping, murdering, and mutilating the bodies of 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. There were also reports of cannibalism, necrophilia, and preservation of mutilated body parts.

Dahmer committed his first murder shortly after graduating from high school in 1978. According to reports, Dahmer picked up hitchhiker Steven Mark Hicks and brought him home for drinks. When Hicks started talking about girls, Dahmer, who was gay, realized his advances would not be reciprocated. So, Dahmer killed Hicks.

Dahmer killed 16 more men and young boys until his arrest in 1991. He also had sex with the corpses of his victims and sliced them up into pieces while preserving some parts in his freezer. Dahmer was finally arrested when Tracy Edwards, who was poised to be Dahmer’s next victim, escaped the Milwaukee Monster’s clutches and flagged police officers.

The police went to Dahmer’s apartment to talk to him but found more than what they bargained for. They found polaroid photos of Dahmer’s mutilated victims, severed heads, human hearts, and other body parts.

Dahmer was convicted for 16 of the 17 murders and sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences. After one year of solitary confinement, Dahmer was transferred to another unit and was beaten to death with a metal bar by two fellow inmates. He only served two years of his sentence.

5. Gilles de Rais (1404 to 1440)

Gilles de Rais was a knight in bloody armor—not from slaying dragons and bandits, but from killing hundreds of children. His gallantry has been forgotten because of his heinous crimes.

Before the murders, Rais was a commander in the French army and a companion-in-arms of the famous Joan of Arc. Today, Rais is more famous as the first known serial killer.

When Rais retired from the military in 1434, he started dabbling in the occult, or so reports stated. He used the children as offerings in his alchemy practice. De Rais later confessed that seeing the children's organs made him happy.

Eventually, he was tried for his crimes, convicted, and executed through hanging.

6. Albert Fish (1870 to 1936)

He was known by many names: Werewolf of Wysteria, Gray Man, Brooklyn Maniac, The Bogey Man, and Moon Maniac. However, with the atrocities he committed between 1924 and 1928, Albert Fish just deserved to be called a serial killer.

Fish claimed to have killed, raped, and cannibalized 400 children and boasted about them: “I had children in every state.”

Only five murders have been officially linked to Fish. He was arrested on December 13, 1934, for the kidnapping and murder of 10-year-old Grace Budd. Fish wrote to the child’s mother about kidnapping and killing her, as well as cutting up and roasting the body for food. The letter said, in part: “It took me nine days to eat her entire body.”

Fish did not sign the letter, but the police investigation zeroed in on him. Fish did not deny the accusation and was convicted and sentenced to death via electric chair in 1936.

7. Peter Niers (1540 to 1581)

Peter Niers practiced black magic, which he claimed led him to kill 544 people, including 24 fetuses cut out from their mothers’ bodies. The victims were used as offerings, and Niers reportedly ate some of them.

Niers began as a notorious German robber-killer, leading a group of criminals throughout the countryside. From 1577 to 1581, Niers and his companions were in and out of jail for robbery.

Niers reportedly murdered and cannibalized some of his victims. Some of the lore that circulated at that time claimed that Niers had supernatural abilities and could physically transform into animals or objects.

Niers was finally arrested in 1581 at a bathhouse. For his many sins, Niers was tortured for three days before he was executed by quartering.

8. Harold Shipman (1946 to 2004)

Harold Shipman is considered Britain’s most prolific serial killer, with around 250 victims, most of whom were his patients. He also earned the nicknames Dr. Death and Angel of Death. He is the only British doctor that has been convicted of killing patients, although many had been tried and acquitted.

So, what drove this once respectable doctor to kill? Money. In 1998, Dr. Linda Reynolds expressed concern over the high death rates of Shipman’s patients. Law enforcement was alerted, but there wasn’t enough evidence to pin the deaths on Shipman.

That same year, a taxi driver also raised concerns that many healthy elderly people he had driven to the hospital died under Shipman’s care.

The suspicions intensified when Shipman’s last victim, Kathleen Grundy, was found dead at her home. Shipman was the last person to see Grundy. The intrigue continued when Grundy left her children and grandchildren out of her will. Instead, she left around £386,000 to Shipman. The investigation against Shipman was reopened, and Grundy’s body was exhumed—authorities found traces of diamorphine in her remains.

Shipman was arrested, charged, and tried with the murders of 15 women by lethal injections of diamorphine. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2000. Shipman cut his life short and hanged himself in his prison cell on Jan. 13, 2004.

9. Jack the Ripper (around 1881)

Nobody knows who Jack the Ripper is, but this didn’t stop him from becoming one of the world's most popular and notorious serial killers. He was linked to the murder of five women in the Whitechapel district of London’s East End between August and November 1888. Another dozen murders are attributed to Jack the Ripper between 1888 and 1892, but only the five 1888 murders appeared linked to each other.

Authorities called the East End victims the canonical five (in order of their death): Mary Ann Nichols, Anna Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.

While the serial killer has never been found, it is clear from the killings—the way the bodies were mutilated—that Jack the Ripper had some knowledge about human anatomy. The mystery surrounding Jack the Ripper had made him a popular subject of films, TV shows, and true crime podcasts.

10. Amelia Dyer (1836 to 1896)

She was a trained nurse who was meant to care for people but ended up strangling babies she adopted. Amelia Dyer was widowed in 1869 and was left with two children without any means to take care of them. Dyer turned to baby farming, a practice during the Victorian period where “farmers” adopted unwanted babies for a fee.

Dyer reportedly took good care of the first few babies that came into her home. But eventually, a switch turned, and Dyer began neglecting them until they died. It further progressed as she started killing the babies. Because the baby farming practice was so widespread, there was no way to know if the babies were well taken care of.

Dyer reportedly killed up to 400 of the infants she adopted during a span of 30 years, although only six of the murderers were officially attributed to her. While police had long suspected Dyer of killing children, there was never enough evidence for an arrest or conviction.

In 1896, police entrapped Dyer with a young woman who posed as a prospective client. They found evidence of the killings in her home, and she was arrested and charged with murder. The jury deliberated for less than five minutes before declaring her guilty. She was executed by hanging in 18966.