Bela Kiss

The serial killer Bela Kiss liked to pickle people in barrels stored in his basement. Someone figured it out but they couldn't get him because he was fighting in World War 1. By the time they tracked him down, he had disappeared and left a dead guy in his hospital bed. He supposedly joined the French Foreign Legion and deserted that too, with the exception of one possible sighting as a janitor in New York. The janitor disappeared before anyone could confirm it.