10 Most Disturbing Facts About Infamous Serial Killers

10 Creepy Facts About Infamous Serial Killers

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the creepiest pieces of trivia regarding the world’s most famous serial killers.

Robert Pickton May Have Sold Human Meat to the Public

Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton is basically a real life Sweeney Todd. And yes, it is every bit as horrifying as it sounds. Pickton inherited his family’s pig farm in the early ‘90s and began using it as a killing ground. Between 1995 and 2001, Pickton murdered at least 26 women at the farm, but he would later confess to 49. During the investigation, authorities discovered human remains mixed with ground pork in freezers on his property. This led to speculation that he had unknowingly or intentionally processed human flesh along with his pig meat. A health notice was then issued to the public, warning that anyone who had consumed pork from Pickton’s farm might have unknowingly consumed human flesh.

Richard Chase Drank His Victims’ Blood

Known as The Vampire of Sacramento, Richard Chase earned his moniker owing to his habit of consuming human blood. Active for a brief period in the late ‘70s, Chase murdered six people while suffering from severe mental illness. According to reports, Chase consumed the blood of most of his victims and would proceed to walk around the neighborhood in a messy stupor. Chase reportedly believed that his own blood was either turning into a dusty powder or that its supply was somehow depleting and that drinking fresh blood would save him from demise. And when police investigated Chase’s apartment, they found many different items covered in blood, including cups and drinking utensils.

John Wayne Gacy Kept Bodies In His Crawl Space

Perhaps the most famous bit of trivia about John Wayne Gacy, besides the fact that he worked as a party clown, was that he kept corpses in the crawl space of his Chicago house. Gacy murdered at least 33 men inside his house throughout the 1970s, often luring them there with promises of a job in his construction business. He buried 29 of these victims in the crawl space, layering quicklime and periodically spreading concrete in an attempt to mask the smell of their decomposing bodies. It clearly didn’t work, as multiple neighbors inquired about the rancid smell coming from Gacy’s house, but he would often blame it on dead rodents and plumbing issues.

Jack the Ripper Allegedly Sent a Kidney Through the Mail

Not much is known about Jack the Ripper, as he was never caught. What we do know is that the district of Whitechapel established a Vigilance Committee to monitor and investigate the crimes and that this committee was inundated with taunting letters supposedly written by Jack. Most of these letters have been debunked as hoaxes, but one - titled “From Hell” - is often considered to be real. It was sent to the committee’s chairman, George Lusk[a], and contained half of a human kidney. The letter states that it was taken from one of Jack’s victims and that the other half was fried and consumed. Debate continues to rage regarding the authenticity of the letter, but it is undoubtedly one of the creepiest aspects of Ripper lore.

Ed Kemper Killed Members of His Own Family

While he’s known as the Co-ed Killer owing to his penchant for murdering college students, Ed Kemper also killed three members of his own family. At the age of fifteen, Kemper was sent to live with his paternal grandparents in North Fork, California, following a troubled childhood. However, continued disagreements and frustrations resulted in Kemper murdering both of his grandparents on August 27, 1964. And then following his Co-Ed killing spree, Kemper murdered his own mother, Clarnell Strandberg, on April 20, 1973. But he didn’t just kill her - he also performed some extremely disturbing acts with her body. Tired of killing, Kemper then called the police on himself and was sent to prison, where he remains to this day.

Israel Keyes Staged a Ransom Photo with a Corpse

On February 1, 2012, Israel Keyes kidnapped 18-year-old Samantha Koenig[b] from the Alaska coffee stand where she worked. He then took her home and murdered her before embarking on a cruise with his family. After returning from his trip, Keyes sewed Koenig’s eyes open with fishing line, making it appear as if she were alive. He then put a newspaper into her hands, effectively staging a ransom photo and demanding $30,000 from her family. After the money was deposited, Keyes disposed of Koening’s body in a lake. Giving false hope to her family was exceedingly cruel. But luckily, it was this money that proved to be Keyes’s downfall, as police finally arrested him after tracking his cash withdrawals at various ATMs.

Ted Bundy Would Return to His Crime Scenes

Despite his charming veneer, Ted Bundy is one of the most psychotic monsters in modern history. His true body count is unknown, but police believe that he is responsible for at least 36 murders. But it’s more than just his body count that makes Bundy so infamous. He was known to return to his crime scenes, often to reposition the bodies, groom their hair and apply makeup to their faces, and dress them in different clothes. But that’s certainly not all that he did. Perhaps his most infamous hiding place was Taylor Mountain in Washington, where several of his victims were ultimately found. Bundy later admitted that he hid the bodies there hoping that the wildlife would ultimately claim them.

Jeffrey Dahmer Tried to Make Zombies

Perhaps the most infamous serial killer in American history, Jeffrey Dahmer tried turning his victims into submissive and mindless beings who would stay with him without resistance. To do this, Dahmer drilled holes into his victims’ skulls and injected various substances, such as hydrochloric acid or boiling water, directly into their brains. The belief was that this operation would induce a permanent, zombie-like state, but the experiments never worked and the victims ultimately died from the toxic effects of the chemicals. The most famous example is that of Konerak Sinthasomphone[c], who briefly escaped Dahmer’s apartment following the gruesome operation. However, Dahmer was able to convince police that Sinthasomphone was his drunk boyfriend and he was returned to Dahmer’s care, where he was subsequently murdered.

Albert Fish Wrote a Letter to His Victim’s Mother

A heinous serial killer active in the 1920s, Albert Fish murdered at least three people, but he is a suspect in many other cases. In May of 1928, Fish murdered his final confirmed victim, Grace Budd, in an abandoned New York house. Six years later, in November 1934, Budd’s mother received an anonymous letter, which is now attributed to Fish. The letter is extraordinarily graphic, with Fish boasting and explaining the morbid details of her daughter’s murder. The letter was handed over to the police, who confirmed the details. But this letter led to Fish’s downfall, as police were able to track the envelope to his rooming house, where they ultimately arrested him. Fish then confessed that he murdered Budd and sent the horrific letter.

The Toolbox Killers Tape Is Used to Train FBI Agents

Lawrence Bittaker[d] and Roy Norris are collectively known as the Toolbox Killers. They kidnapped and murdered five girls in the summer of 1979, often subjecting them to horrific mistreatment in the process. Their methods often involved the use of household tools, hence the name Toolbox Killers. Their final victim was Shirley Ledford, and the killers captured her attack on tape. Norris has spoken about the tape, claiming that no actress could ever reproduce the guttural sound of a primal scream and that no one “could listen to more than a full sixty seconds of it.” Indeed, this tape is now in the possession of the FBI and is used to desensitize agents to the sounds of murder.

Do you have any other creepy facts for us? Let us know in the comments below!

[a]https://youtu.be/IvtYf9-CZ6s?si=ac4Mii5hJNMcVvg7&t=2422
[b]KOH-nig https://youtu.be/sVpmxrUZrvc?si=YQCUe4Hie3Y-nJVX&t=66
[c]conner-ack sintha-SAWM-phone
[d]BITTA-kur https://youtu.be/LGPfBrJ_mME?si=xoCKoDKmFU3ac3pf&t=15
https://youtu.be/PY4YmVi4_LQ?si=mJNkVtrFUIwhVk4D&t=1221