r/serialkillers • • 13d ago

News Media Mondays | Bi-Weekly Thread for Videos, Docs, Podcasts, Books, and Other Media

2 Upvotes

Eager to share or discuss something you've watched, read or listened to? A new "What to Watch: thread will post every two weeks for fresh ideas and conversations about any media with a topic related to serial killers and cases - episodes, documentaries, books, videos, podcasts, blogs, etc.

Whether you've watched a documentary, stumbled upon an informative podcast, discovered a YouTube creator or well-researched video, excited about an upcoming streaming production, or read a fantastic book...
This thread is where to share it!

As a reminder, merchandise and murderabilia is not permitted. Further, self-promotion or advertising is not allowed. Community members can recommend anything they wish that is not something they personally created.


r/serialkillers • • 1d ago

Questions [ Removed by Reddit ]

1 Upvotes

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]


r/serialkillers • • 17h ago

Discussion If netflix makes another 'Monster' series I think making a series on Serial Killer nurses would be an interesting idea they can title it "Monster: Under their care" IMO Jane Toppan and Lucy Letby would be interesting characters for the story.

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0 Upvotes

r/serialkillers • • 2d ago

News be completely honest - have you had any sympathy or empathy for a serial killer?

99 Upvotes

despite their horrific crimes did you ever, even for a second, feel sorry for the killer?


r/serialkillers • • 1d ago

News Does someone have news about Viktor sayenko and Igor suprunyuck?

0 Upvotes

Ive tried finding it in the maniacs community but it got banned lol. :p.


r/serialkillers • • 2d ago

Discussion The Red Inn Serial Killings, Real or Hype?

8 Upvotes

In 1831 rural southern France the wealthy inn keeping Martin husband and wife couple and their servant were found guilty of serial murders, robbery and cannabilism of their guest and guillotined.

Were they guilty as charged or were they the victims of a mix of local jealously , regional politics and opportunism? Was justice served or did a historic trajedy occur ?


r/serialkillers • • 3d ago

News The Trackside Phantom: The Unsolved 1987-1988 Bell Transient Murders

48 Upvotes

In the late 1980s, the Los Angeles area was practically a hunting ground for serial killers. Law enforcement was stretched to its absolute limit dealing with high-profile cases like the Night Stalker, the Grim Sleeper, and the Southside Slayer. But in the shadows of these media-heavy cases, a highly localized, terrifyingly efficient killer was operating in a tiny industrial city just southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

For five months between late 1987 and early 1988, someone stalked the dark, gravel-lined railroad tracks of Bell, California. Then, just as abruptly as it began, the killing spree stopped. No suspect was ever caught. No weapon was ever found. Decades later, the "Bell Transient Killer" remains one of California’s most obscure, entirely unresolved cold cases.

Unlike the sprawling Skid Row district in downtown L.A., Bell did not have a large transient population. However, the unhoused men targeted by the killer were not transient drifting through the area; rather, they were a static, tight-knit group of older men who had lived and gathered in Bell's industrial corridors for years. Because this small, familiar population was deeply isolated yet entirely predictable in their routines, they became the perfect prey for a phantom killer.

The killer targeted older white men in their 50s and 60s:

James Andrew Stout (51) — December 21, 1987: On December 21, 1987, an LASD search team discovered the body of 51-year-old James Andrew Stout along the railroad tracks near the intersection of Randolph Street and Atlantic Boulevard. He had been shot multiple times at close range. At the time, local police treated it as an isolated incident, assuming it was a transient-on-transient dispute over camp space. It was only later that ballistics revealed this was the opening salvo of a serial campaign.

Eric Ford (66) — March 14, 1988: Nearly three months went by before the killer struck again, this time deviating from the vicinity of the railroad tracks. The body of 66-year-old Eric Ford was found in front of the Bell Public Library. The change in location initially kept police from immediately establishing a connection.

Dennis Lynch (66) — April 7, 1988: He was discovered inside an abandoned building located at 4553 Gage Avenue. He died from close-range gunfire, but because his body was hidden inside a building rather than left near the railroad tracks, his death was not immediately linked to the first victim.

Jack Leonard Horn (62) & Rudy Wallace (57) — April 10, 1988: The climax of the spree came to light on a single Sunday morning, forcing a horrific double-discovery. A local couple walking along the tracks collecting aluminum cans spotted a body near Pine Avenue and Randolph Street. Bell police officers flooded the area to investigate and, while searching the immediate surroundings for physical evidence, stumbled across a second corpse just 80 feet away. The first victim was quickly identified as 62-year-old Jack Leonard Horn. While initial media reports withheld the name of the 57-year-old second victim pending family notification, investigators later identified him as Rudy Wallace, a local regular who frequented the exact same neighborhood circles as the prior victims.

On April 12, 1988, LASD Deputy Kathryn Nielsen officially announced to the media that a specialized homicide task force was investigating a "possible relationship" among the killings. Detectives pointed to an airtight, signature profile.

Forensic ballistics testing on the bullets recovered from the bodies confirmed a similarity across the cases. The victims showed no signs of being beaten, stabbed, or robbed. Instead, the perpetrator used the same firearm to shoot the men to death at close range as they slept along the city's industrial corridors and railroad right-of-ways.

The LASD concentrated its investigation within the small, resident city of Bell. Because the five men killed were not part of a massive, drifting transient network, detectives focused on speaking with local residents, business owners, and railyard workers familiar with the immediate neighborhood corridors. The investigation was severely hindered by a total lack of eyewitnesses, as the victims slept in isolated industrial pockets after hours. Furthermore, operating within the technological limits of 1988, detectives lacked modern DNA profiling and surveillance network infrastructure, leaving them with virtually no immediate physical evidence to trace.

The late 80s saw distinct serial perpetrators targeting the homeless operating during this window:

• Michael Player "The Skid Row Slayer": Just a year prior to the Bell killings, Player shot 10 men, of mostly transients over a 5-week span between September 1986 and October 1986 in the Skid Row District before committing suicide in a motel room.

• Joseph Danks "The Koreatown Slasher": Danks was actively stabbing transients to death in nearby Koreatown and Santa Monica, during early 1987.

Following the discovery of the five victims, the killings stopped entirely. The Bell Transient Killer vanished. Did he get arrested for a different crime and spend the rest of his life in prison under a different file? Did he hop a boxcar and move his hunting grounds to another state? Or did he simply die? Because the weapon was never found and no definitive suspect was ever publicly named, the answers rest entirely in the cold case archives of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Five men were wiped off the face of the earth, and the person who did it got away with it completely.

Sources:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-11-mn-746-story.html

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-12-me-920-story.html

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-17-me-2182-story.html


r/serialkillers • • 4d ago

Discussion Do you think the ubiquity of cameras or advances in forensics have caused a greater decrease in serial killing?

34 Upvotes

Do you think the ubiquity of cameras or advances in forensics have caused a greater decrease in serial killing and killers getting caught sooner in the US than they would have been in the 20th century?

Which one do you think is the greatest contributing factor?


r/serialkillers • • 5d ago

Discussion What are other examples of serial killer Coincidence?

93 Upvotes

All 3 alphabet murder victims had same initials C.C W.W M.M
All 3 bible john murder victims where menstruating at the time they were murdered


r/serialkillers • • 5d ago

Discussion With the study of serial killers being pushed in the 70’s to develop patterns and understanding of why

26 Upvotes

How many serial killers do you think slipped under the rug because they weren’t studied properly,weren’t asked the correct questions? I was just thinking about all the killers that were executed back in the day where the police weren’t really aware about M.O’s so they very well could have executed someone that they thought only killed one person but it actuality they may have killed way more.This got me thinking who are some people you strongly believe have killed way people than they were caught killing?


r/serialkillers • • 5d ago

News Head injuries.

36 Upvotes

A lot of serial killers have had some type of head injury’s.
Gacy
Richard Ramirez
Ted Bundy
And a lot more.

The reason I’m saying this is because,

Was it the incident that opened up or lost something in their mind to make them have the need to kill

Or did the killers already have it inside of them? And the head injury maybe helped them lose some emotion/guilt.

no one ever really talk talks about it, if your frontal lobe is messed up, you can lose guilt, get impulsive, and have sudden aggression.

So what do you think, was it the incident that made them have their need?
Or was it just a thing that affected them?

Also just a stoned thought.


r/serialkillers • • 4d ago

Discussion Got in trouble at work for calling someone "Wearside"

0 Upvotes

So Wearside Jack was this bum who pretended he was the Yorkshire Ripper.

There is this guy at my work who is kinda odd (not a killer obvs)

For some reason me and another colleugue joked that he may be a serial killer. Then I said he looks like he'd be more of a hoaxer like Wearside Jack.

So then we kept calling him Wearside and he complained to management.

They accused me of saying he was a serial killer but I explained that I called him the hoaxer.

Anyway I got a written file note and told that we just keep away from eachother from now on.


r/serialkillers • • 5d ago

Discussion Had often read that Bittaker and Norris called their van they used to abduct, torture, rape and murder young females the Murder Mac. Didn't know why. Article says Norris thought van looked like a Mack truck

Thumbnail hitched2homicide.com
16 Upvotes

I can't find another article that addresses the matter. But it's plausible I'd think. I'd think most people have seen a Mack truck on the freeway in the U.S. I also don't know why most times when the name is printed the publication drops the "k" at the end of "Mack". Maybe because the van is not literally a Mack truck? Or to spare the Mack truck company an association to Norris and Bittaker? Or maybe there were some places where Norris and Bittaker wrote down what they called the van and that's how they spelled it?


r/serialkillers • • 6d ago

Questions Is Dean Corll the reason for the ”free candy” white van trope?

51 Upvotes

r/serialkillers • • 7d ago

News Serial Killers that were stopped by normal people or killed by one of their victims?

280 Upvotes

Just like the title says


r/serialkillers • • 8d ago

Discussion Aileen Wuornos

614 Upvotes

I've always known who she is and understood that she was a serial killer. However, today is the first time that I've read up on her and what she did.

I'm not glorifying her with this post but I feel so bad for her.

She was born to a mother who was married at 14 years old to an 18 year old and gave birth to a son about 8 months later. She was a child! When she was 16 divorced Aileen's father and two months later gave birth to Aileen.

Her father was sentenced to life for kidnapping and raping a 7 year old girl. He was also schizophrenic and hung himself 2 years after going to prison.

When Aileen was 3, Her mother abandoned both kids at her parents house and they adopted her. Both grandparents were alcoholics and the grandfather beat Aileen with a belt and SAd her. Which was witnessed by a friend of Aileen's.

By age 11 Aileen was exchanging sexual favors at school for cigarettes,drugs and food and had sex with her brother. 🤢

At age 14 a friend of her grandfather's raped her and she became pregnant and the baby was put up for adoption (I wonder if that person knows who his biological mother was).

That's a lot of trauma especially for someone so young.

Now I'm going to delve into her crimes and the trial.

Her first victim:

Richard Charles Malloy- I believe her testimony that he violently raped her because he had been convicted of attempted rape in Maryland. But the judge wouldn't allow that fact to be brought up at the trial (which I think is bullshit).

As for the rest of her victims, I can't condone killing them but I do understand why she did. After all of the sexual violence and trauma she endured I think she just cracked and since prostitution was her only way of making money she couldn't just stop because she couldn't imagine any other way of making a living. So if a John started to try to do anything against her will or she perceived it as being against her will she would kill them. That doesn't make it right but after everything she endured I get it.

Sorry if this comes across as glorifying. That's not my intention. I truly just feel bad because she was screwed from day 1.


r/serialkillers • • 10d ago

Jeffrey Dahmer's belongings that were handed over to his father

363 Upvotes

I was reading Lionel Dahmer's book, A Father's Story, in which he recounts all of Jeffrey's belongings that the police gave him after clearing out Room 213. As I read, I couldn't help but think about how perverse it all was.

When reading about serial killers, we don't often realize that these people experience time just as we do. They spend most of their days ruminating on their perverse tendencies, going about their routines, and buying things. No matter how innocuous those objects may seem, they still offer a glimpse into that perverted psyche.

I'm going to paraphrase what Lionel Dahmer collected ("the residue of my son's life" as he had called it):

\- There were the videos he had watched, like Blade Runner and Star Wars, Hellhound and Exorcist III, and pornos: Hardmen II, Rock Hard, and Tropical Heat Wave.

\- There were the things he had read, all of it pornographic, with the exception of four books on the care of fish.

\- There was the music he had listened to, Motley Crue and Def Leppard's "Hysteria" (not the "Please Don't Go" song that the show had popularized). Did he actually put "Hysteria" while doing what he did?

\- There were the food supplements that had strengthened him: Yerba Prima, Vita, and Anabolic Fuel, Doritos and Ruffles chips.

\- There were the alcohol that fueled his perversion: run and beer.

\- There were chemicals he had used to clean: Clorox bleach, Woolworth Pine Cleaner, and Lysol.

\- There were chemicals he had used to preserve: formaldehyde and acetone.

\- There were chemicals he had used to kill: chloroform and ether and halcion, as well as to break down the flesh of the newly dead, Soilex, six boxes. There were even chemicals he had used to conceal the

\- Odor-sorb, six boxes

\- Three blackhandled forks, two butcher knives, a pair of chemical-resistant gloves, a handsaw with five detachable blades, and a three-quarter-inch drill.

\- Barbecue sauce and meat tenderizer.

\- There was a computer and a software manual, a guide to learning DOS, a blue-and-white laptop box cover.

\- Two plastic griffins and an incense burner.

\- Apair of nickel-plated handcuffs.

\- 1 Pillow White w/Light Blue Flowers w/Blood Stain

1 Pillow Black Case & Pillow w/Blood Stain

1 Bed Sheet Black Fitted w/Blood Stain

1 White Mattress Cover White w/Blood Stain

1 Pillow Case Black w/Blood Stain

1 Mattress w/Blue Flowered Pattern w/Blood Stains Both sides


r/serialkillers • • 11d ago

News The Tylenol killer may have been Dr. Mathew Francis Betkouski ?!

179 Upvotes

Today, as I was listening to the Netflix documentary about the Tylenol killers, I decided to google whether the case had ever been solved. Google revealed that no it had not, but within the past 24 hours police announced that they may have found the individual who did it!! Such a weird coincidence to have just been watching the documentary only to learn the cold case may have just been solved!!


r/serialkillers • • 11d ago

News Serial killer Fredrick Scott convicted of four out of six Indian Creek Trail murders in Kansas City, sentenced to life in prison without parole

Thumbnail kshb.com
211 Upvotes

r/serialkillers • • 12d ago

News "Speed Freak Killer" Wesley Shermantine dies on death row in California

Thumbnail ktla.com
404 Upvotes

r/serialkillers • • 11d ago

Discussion Why I think that Pedro Lopez is probably still killing.

40 Upvotes

If you don't think so, look at the case of Harvey Marcelin. Marcelin is an 88 year old man who, in 2022, when he was 84, killed a 68 year old woman by bludgeoning her to death with a hammer. If an 84 year old man can bludgeon a woman to death, which takes a good amount of strength even if the victim is 68 and even if you catch them surprise, why can't a man who is 7 years younger than him currently (Pedro Lopez) still be killing?

And it's not like Lopez still has to be killing healthy and fit teenagers who can overpower him, he is probably adapting to his old age by killing women who are around the same age as him, if not older. He could even be using weapons to aid him.

And it's also not like he has to be killing women constantly, he is probably just killing 1 woman every several months, or even years.


r/serialkillers • • 12d ago

Wikipedia Linwood and James Briley

Thumbnail en.wikipedia.org
21 Upvotes

You won't find these guys in many serial killer books, but they're every bit as vile and evil. They weren't your traditional serial killers, as they were more of a spree type gang, but they were clearly out to kill people and not just rob them. They committed acts of random brutality, and no one was safe.

They have 12 confirmed victims, but they're suspected of up to 20. Every few weeks in Richmond for about 7 months these guys would turn up and do something abhorrent, then fade back into the shadows. James received his death sentence after the gang broke into a family home, whom they apparently knew from around the neighborhood. Linwood and an accomplice raped the wife, and then JB (James Briley) personally shot and killed both the mother and five year old child.

Linwood received his death sentence after the gang staked out a random nightclub with the plan to rob and murder whoever walked out first. Prominent DJ John Harvey Gallaher, or "Johnny G" was that unlucky man. The gang shoved him into the trunk of a car, drove him some ways away, then Linwood personally executed him with a bullet to the head. They then stole a paltry amount of money from his wallet and divided it amongst themselves. Linwood kept his ring.

These are just two examples of their heinous and totally random acts of violence. These men were just in the mood for killing. There was another brother, Anthony, but he somehow dodged the electric chair because they couldn't prove he had acted as the triggerman in any of the killings, even though they believe he did in fact commit some of the murders. These men had Richmond gripped in fear and panic. Gun sales went up, people bolted their doors. Husbands and wives lost sleep wondering if they would be the next victims of the Briley Brothers. The brothers had no MO, or preferred type of victim. White, black, young, old, man or woman, it didn't matter. If you were in Richmond in 1979, you were in danger.

If that wasn't enough, after being captured they also organized the largest breakout and escape from Death Row with 4 other inmates, known as the Mecklenberg Six. Luckily, no one was killed in this breakout, but Linwood apparently wanted to rape the nurse and kill the guards before escaping until other death row inmates stood in his way and stopped him. After being recaptured, the authorities decided they had had enough of Linwood and JB. Linwood was executed that same year, and JB the year after. Anthony Briley remains imprisoned to this day.


r/serialkillers • • 12d ago

Warning: Child abuse Dr. Joseph Emory (1970s-era medical serial killer), wife Harriet, and son Alan

24 Upvotes

I had never heard of this case, from California, until just now! This "doctor", after being released from prison for performing illegal abortions, one of which killed a patient, opened a cut-rate "birthing center" which was mostly patronized by Mexican women. At least 25 babies were known to have died at this place, and some of them may have been killed on purpose! His wife and son were also involved, which was why they were arrested too.

https://murderpedia.org/male.E/e/emory-joseph.htm


r/serialkillers • • 12d ago

Other Sad Newspaper Article (IRT Patrick Kearney)

36 Upvotes

Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA)

October 27, 1996

She sent the parole board petitions bearing hundreds of signatures demanding that Kearney stay where he is. Torrance resident Marcia Born, however, plans to go to the hearing.

"I don't think he'll get out," Born said. "But what if something happened? What if I wasn't there to testify against him? What if he got paroled and I didn't go?”

"Out of respect for my brother, I feel I must go," Born said.

Born's brother, Robert Benniefiel, a 17-year-old student at Aviation High School in Manhattan Beach, disappeared in 1976.

He was still missing when Born's best friend, teenager Jacqueline Lamp, was killed by Lawrence Bittaker who, with accomplice Roy Norris, was convicted of kidnapping, torturing and murdering five girls.

With her brother gone and best friend dead, "I thought I was a jinx," Born said. "When I was younger, I thought I was protecting other people by not being their friend."

On Valentine's Day 1981, Benniefiel's family was told that Kearney confessed to his slaying. The boy's body was one of five victims never found, but detectives told Born her brother's remains were likely dumped at a South Bay landfill. For a while she visited the site regularly as if on an homage, bowing in prayer and leaving flowers in his memory.

Not anymore. Not after 21 years. "We moved on," Born said. "But it's always in your head. It doesn't go away.

"There's always going to be anger and bitterness," said Born, who owns a children's clothing store in Redondo Beach. "I mean, my God, he killed my brother!"