1 Big Ed
Ed Kemper is an American serial killer and necrophile who murdered 10 people, including his paternal grandparents and mother. He befriended the very police officers investigating his murders, and would socialize with them at a bar called the “Jury Room”. They called him “Big Ed” and never suspected him. He looked absolutely terrifying at 6’9″, 300 lbs. When he initially confessed, they thought he was pulling a prank. After his arrest, once he was left alone in a cell with FBI agent Robert Ressler, who was interviewing him. At the end of the conversation, Ressler hit the buzzer to summon a guard to let him out of the cell. Several minutes went by and no guard came. Kemper picked up on the agent’s unease. He said, “If I went apesh*t in here, you’d be in a lot of trouble, wouldn’t you?” Kemper said, getting up from his chair to accentuate his mass. “I could screw your head off and place on the table to greet the guard.” The guard didn’t come for 30 minutes. Ressler, however, managed to talk Kemper out of snapping his neck.
2 Clarence Elkins
In 1998, a man named Clarence Elkins was convicted for the murder of his mother-in-law and assault of his 6-year-old niece. He was denied an appeal on rape and murder charges despite proving the DNA didn’t match. His wife worked hard to exonerate him and found a likely suspect who was in the same jail as him. Clarence collected a cigarette he’d used and there was DNA match. The prosecutor still refused to overturn the conviction until the attorney general publicly shamed him. After he was released, it was discovered that the real killer, a convicted sex offender who lived next door to the victim, had once asked a police officer why they hadn’t arrested him for the murder yet.
3 Ricky Ray Rector
After killing a man in a restaurant, Ricky Ray Rector at first agreed to turn himself in to authorities but instead shot the police officer who had negotiated his surrender in the back, killing him. He then shot himself in the head in a suicide attempt. The attempt effectively resulted in a lobotomy. In prison, he saved part of his last meal for “after the execution.”
4 Peter Woodcock
Canadian child killer Peter Woodcock due to his crimes was given intense treatment over many years, deemed safe, and given a weekend pass from the mental institution he was incarcerated under supervision. He was being supervised on the pass by Bruce Hamill, a former patient and also a murderer. Woodcock had previously convinced Hamill that an ‘alien brotherhood’ would solve his problems if he helped kill another Brockville inmate, Dennis Kerr. On July 13, 1991, Hamill went to a hardware store, bought a plumber’s wrench, hatchet, knives, and a sleeping bag, then went to the Brockville hospital and signed out Woodcock on his first publicly escorted day pass. They lured Kerr to a secluded spot and butchered him. Hamill took a handful of over-the-counter sleeping pills and waited for the aliens to come. Woodcock then went to the town police station and confessed. He claimed that the treatment they gave at the mental institution “served only to make him more adept at manipulating others.”
5 Belle Gunness
Indiana’s most notorious serial killer Belle Gunness murdered up to 40 people. after she moved from Norway to Chicago in 1881. She killed most of her suitors and boyfriends, and her two daughters, Myrtle and Lucy. She may also have killed both of her husbands and all of her children, on different occasions. When she was about to be exposed as a killer, she burned down her home and feigned death while successfully framing the only potential witness to her crimes, who died a year later in prison. She managed to vanish with a small fortune in premarital gifts and insurance payments and was never seen again.
6 Denver Spider-Man
A drifter named Theodore Coneys, a.k.a. the Denver Spider-Man broke into a man’s house and hid in his tiny attic. He ended up murdering the man in 1941 and then continued to hide in the attic for months during the murder investigation, while the murdered man’s wife still lived in the house. Two police officers on a stakeout outside the house saw something move in an upstairs window. They rushed inside and up to the attic where they saw a man trying desperately to squeeze into a tiny gap. He’d been living in a tiny hole in the wall this whole time, occasionally making brief forays downstairs for food and water. He was dubbed the Spiderman for both the weird length of his fingers and for the length of time he’d spent living in his spider-hole in the attic.
7 Israel Keyes
Israel Keyes was a serial killer who had no preferred victim type and never killed in the same area twice. He had no connection to any of his victims and usually killed far from home. He planned murders long ahead of time and took extraordinary action to avoid detection. For one murder, he flew to Chicago and rented a car to get to Vermont, then used a murder kit he’d hidden two years earlier. When shopping, he kept his phone off and only paid in cash. In spite of being so ridiculously careful and methodical, in the end, he used his victim’s debit card multiple times until he was apprehended.
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8 Patty Cannon
Patty Cannon was notorious for leading a gang that kidnapped free blacks and sold them back into slavery in what was known as the Reverse Underground Railroad. In 1829, she was arrested for murdering a slave owner and stealing his $15,000. Investigation revealed bodies of four blacks, including three children being discovered buried on farm property which Cannon owned in Delaware. She confessed to nearly two dozen murders of black kidnap victims and died in prison while awaiting trial.
9 Robert Pickton
Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton a.k.a. ‘The Pig Farmer Killer’ confessed to murdering 49 women between 1983-2002. Vancouver PD had received a number of tips about prostitutes going to his farm and never being seen again. One time he was even arrested for attempted murder but not charged because the woman was a heroin addict. Authorities did nothing but managed to collect some physical evidence (mostly clothes) that would later connect him to two more of his victims, but only after it sat in an evidence locker for over 7 years, completely forgotten. There’s even speculation that he ground his victims up with pork that he may have sold to the public. He had massive parties at his farm all the time and most probably served the tainted meat to his guests. After he was arrested he said he was disappointed that he didn’t get to 50 women and was caught because he was “sloppy”.
10 Samuel Little
In November 2018 Samuel Little confessed to 93 murders. This would make him the most prolific serial killer in American history. Authorities have so far confirmed at least 50 (as of 2019) murders. The real victim count might be even higher than the current confirmed numbers as the FBI is still working on other murder cases they believe are also connected to him. In the beginning, the FBI spent more than 700 hours interviewing him, but they never got him to admit his crimes. Then a Texas Ranger named James Holland did the impossible and managed to coax him to confess to 65 of his murders whilst they shared pizzas together. His photographic memory allows him to recall all his victims and it is being used to solve cold cases. He is now behind bars, wheelchair-bound, suffering from diabetes and a serious heart condition, but he has no remorse for his crimes.
48. Actually he was caught by an undercover officer wearing a wire discussing a hit.
Why does #11 have a picture of Robert Kennedy?
No idea how that happened. We have corrected and updated the article with the correct picture.