Serial killers
Gruesome catalogue of crimes by history’s most evil murderers are told in the numbers of the beasts
Canadian serial killer Bruce McArthur posed his victims in fur coats, put cigars in their mouths, then took photos of them. police found the pictures of them on a memory stick, with a separate folder foe each of his eight victims. We have been fascinated by multiple murder since jack the Ripper terrorised London at the end of the 19th century. This is how serial killers add up.
3 The number of murders a person has to commit before they are classed as a serial killer.
233 The number of times the phrase “serial killer was used in the New York Times in the 80s.
2514times The number of the phrase “serial killer was used in the New York Times in the 90s.
135 Number of experts who met in San Antonio in 2005 to come up with the FBI’s definition of serial murder.
29 Number of years Chinese Prince Liu Pengli went out on killing sprees before he was reported to his uncle, the Emperor. By this time he had killed at least 100 people.
5 The minimum number of women murdered by Jack the Ripper, reckoned to be the first “modern” serial killer, in London in 1888.
11 The number of murders investigated by Scotland Yard in 1888 that might have been committed by Jack the Ripper.
76 Number of butchers and slaughtermen interviewed by Scotland Yard in the hunt for Jack the Ripper.
11 Number of women and children killed by Joseph Vacher, known as “the French Ripper”.
76 Percentage of all known 20th century serial killers from the US.
60 Percentage of serial killers who wet their beds as children.
Number of categories of serial killers recognised by the FBI – organised, disorganised and mixed.
99 Number of years being served by nurse Genene Jones, who killed between 11 and 46 infants in Texas in the 70s and 80s.
15 Percentage of known US serial killers who are women.
80 Number of convictions for murder given to Hungarian countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed. She and four others were reckoned to have killed 600.
54 Number of years between the drowning of Felix Vail’s wife and his conviction for her murder.
7 Percentage of serial killers with military experience.
49 Number of teenage girls and women, many of them sex workers, killed by Green River Killer Gary Ridgway
25 Number of detectives who worked together to finally solve the case of the Green River Killer.
15 Percentage of serial killer victims who are stabbed to death.
6 Number of days it took the jury to convict Shipman of 15 counts of murder.
27 Number of murders HH Holmes confessed to in 1895. Several “victims” weren’t dead. Nine may have been killed by him.
14 The age of the youngest girl murdered by Kenneth Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Buono in LA between 1977 and 1979.
15 Number of murders Dennis Nilsen confessed to in 1983. He is known to have killed at least 12 and attempted to kill seven more men and boys.
14 The age of Nilsen’s first victim, Stephen Holmes. He strangled him before drowning him in a bucket.
1000+ The number of charred bone fragments discovered in the garden of Nilsen’s flat at 23 Cranley Gardens.
23 Number of years decorated pilot Russell Williams spent in the Canadian Forces before confessing to the murders of two young women.
26 Number of concurrent life sentences being served by rapist and serial murderer Bobby Joe Long in Florida.
8 Number of student nurses murdered by Richard Speck between 11pm and 6am on July 13, 1966.
3 Number of different murdered women’s hair found in Ted Bundy’s VW Beetle when it was examined by the FBI.
4 Number of members of the same family killed by Denis Rader, the BTK Strangler, in Kansas in 1974. They were discovered by the surviving son. He went on to kill six other people but evaded detection for 14 years.
14 Number of years John Gacy spent on Death Row before being executed for the murder of 12 teenage boys in Illinois in the 1970s.
31 Number of murders nurse Jane Toppan confessed to in Boston in 1901. She got a sexual thrill from seeing her victims die and lay in bed beside them as they passed.
96 Age of the oldest person killed by Canadian nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer.