20 Real-Life Serial Killer Couples

20 Serial Killer Couples in History

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re taking a closer look at 20 of the most infamous and terrifying serial killer couples in history.

Jaroslav & Dana Stodolovi
Between September 2001 and December 2002, Jaroslav & Dana Stodolovi went on one of the most notorious and shockingly violent crime sprees in Czech history. The married couple, who had struggled for money in the past, ruthlessly targeted a number of elderly, retired, and presumed wealthy people, typically by forcing their way into their homes and then tying their victims up. The Stodolovis then robbed what they could, before killing the people they stole from. In most cases, a combination of attempted cover ups plus major mistakes by the investigating police meant that the pair were never even suspected. Until, after months of terror and a total of eight murders, they were found at the scene of the crime… and both were sentenced to life imprisonment.

David & Catherine Birnie
The "Moorhouse Murders" are one of the darkest cases in modern Australian history. They happened over the course of five weeks in 1986, when David and Catherine Birnie of Perth lured five women and girls to their home at 3 Moorhouse Street. The victimes were subjected to horrifying sexual abuse and, in some cases, they were kept trapped in the residence for days. The first four women were murdered at the end of their ordeal, and their bodies were buried in a shallow grave. The fifth was able to escape, however, make it to the police, and ensure that her captors were finally caught. Both were sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment.

James Marlow & Cynthia Coffman
Disturbingly, this killer couple also committed their crimes over a number of weeks in 1986, but this time in California and Arizona. James Marlow and Cynthia Coffman met shortly after Marlow was released from a separate stint in prison. They then toured the country, got married, and began targeting and killing apparently random female victims. While it’s thought that the true extent of their murder spree is still unknown, both Marlow and Coffman were convicted and sentenced to death in 1990. Coffman - who is still living on death row - was the first woman to be issued with the death penalty following its reinstatement in California, in 1977.

Suzan & Michael Bear Carson
Suzan Bear Carson (formerly Susan Barnes) and Michael Bear Carson (formerly James Carson) met and married shortly after James’ first marriage ended, in 1977. The pair became involved in mysticism, with James’ first wife reportedly becoming frightened of him, which led to her breaking off all contact for the safety of her and their daughter. Meanwhile, though, Suzan and (now) Michael truly did descend into madness and depravity. Between March 1981 and November 1983, the pair murdered three people - including two who Suzan is said to have decided were witches. They were caught after killing their final victim on the side of the road, in full view of passing cars.

Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka
The most infamous couple in Canadian history, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka killed three young women throughout the early ‘90s. Their first victim was Homolka’s younger sister Tammy. Two days before Christmas in 1990, the couple severely mistreated her. Homolka then choked on her vomit and died. The couple then kidnapped Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, only this time they intentionally killed the girls. After they were captured, Homolka conned the investigators and received a very favorable plea bargain in exchange for testifying against her husband. While Bernardo was sentenced to life, Homolka was freed on July 4, 2005. She has remained free ever since and even started a family.

Fred & Rose West
The horrific crime spree of Fred and Rose West lasted throughout much of the ‘70s and ‘80s. By the time they were finally arrested in the ‘90s, the couple had killed at least ten people. The Wests would kill their victims inside their Gloucester house and bury their remains in the basement and yard. Fred was the more prolific killer of the two, having killed at least two people without the involvement of his wife; his personal body count may exceed thirteen. Rose helped kill nine women with her husband, in addition to her stepdaughter, whom Fred had from a prior marriage. Their Gloucester home later became known as the “House of Horrors.”

Raymond Fernandez & Martha Beck
In 1947, a single mother of two named Martha Beck placed a personal ad in the newspaper, and it was answered by a man named Raymond Fernandez. Beck developed an intense fascination with Fernandez and even sent her children away so she could devote herself to him. The two quickly fell into a routine of violence and killed at least three people in the late ‘40s. One was a sixty-six-year-old woman named Janet Fay, and the other two were twenty-eight-year-old Delphine Downing and her daughter. Downing’s neighbors alerted the police and the couple were arrested. Both were executed on the same day - March 8, 1951. Fernandez was thirty-six, and Beck was thirty.

Gwendolyn Graham & Cathy Wood
This couple worked as nurse’s aides in Michigan’s Alpine Manor nursing home. Beginning in January of 1987, the two conspired to kill elderly patients suffering from Alzheimer’s. For the next few months, both Graham and Wood took the lives of five nursing home residents. Graham later began dating another nurse at the facility and moved with her to Texas, effectively ending the crime spree. However, Wood told her ex-husband about the crimes, and he in turn informed the authorities. Wood portrayed herself as a victim during the resulting trial, but it’s now believed that she masterminded the whole enterprise to exact revenge against Graham, who had begun dating another woman. It worked, and Graham was given life in prison.

Samantha Bachynski & Patrick Selepak
In Michigan, in spring 2006, Samantha Bachynski and Patrick Selepak killed three people in a matter of days, in a shocking crime spree that caught national and international attention. The pair first murdered a married couple - Scott and Melissa Berels, who was pregnant at the time - in the Berels’ own home. Then, while subsequently on the run, the couple also killed a man named Winfield Johnson. Johnson had offered Bachynski and Selepak a place to stay, unaware of the crimes that they had already committed. Over time he found out, though, and Selepak shot him twice in the back. Almost seventeen years later, in 2003, it was also reported that Selepak had attempted to murder another prisoner in jail.

Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow
The story of Bonnie and Clyde has long captured the attention (and imagination) of America and the world. The infamous outlaws were media sensations in the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression. As key figures in a notorious gang - the Barrow Gang - they were involved in numerous major robberies and multiple killings until their own violent deaths in 1934. In all, they’re thought to have killed at least thirteen people, and likely more. Thanks to a series of photographs discovered of them - including many of them posing with weapons - the couple are still instantly recognisable, even today. At the time, they were among a select group of criminals referred to by the authorities as “public enemies”.

Michel Fourniret & Monique Olivier
Operating across France and Belgium for sixteen years, between 1987 and their eventual arrest in 2003, Michel Fourniret & Monique Olivier murdered at least eight people - including multiple young girls. They had met via a prison pen-pal scheme in the 1980s, at a time when Fourniret was serving a sentence for multiple sexual assaults. Back then, Fourniret had reportedly written of his depraved fantasies, and Olivier had responded saying she would help him to fulfill them. Over the following years, after Fourniret’s release, the couple would drive across France and Belgium concocting elaborate ruses to trick victims into their vehicle, after which they would abuse and ultimately kill them.

Carol M. Bundy & Doug Clark
These two met at a bar in 1980 and quickly developed a relationship. It wasn’t long before Clark moved in with Bundy and embarked on his now-infamous killing spree that would leave multiple people dead. While the two would later be known as the Sunset Strip Killers, the killings themselves were mostly committed by Clark. The homicides troubled Bundy, but she nevertheless remained an accomplice, refusing to give up Clark. Bundy eventually told her ex-lover Jack Murray about the crimes, but she killed him to ensure his silence. However, the crime spree troubled Bundy so much that she eventually confessed to the authorities and she and Clark were both arrested.

Alton Coleman & Debra Brown
In 1983, Debra Brown was engaged to be married when she met a criminal named Alton Coleman. They quickly developed a relationship, and Brown left her fiancé to be with Coleman. Coleman was facing a criminal trial relating to a previous crime when he and Brown fled Illinois to Wisconsin. There they killed the young Vernita Wheat. This began a killing spree that spread throughout the American Midwest. They were eventually caught and arrested on July 20, 1984, having killed a total of eight people. Both were sentenced to death, but Brown was later spared and given life in prison. Coleman was executed by lethal injection on April 26, 2002.

Gerald & Charlene Gallego
Gerald and Charlene Gallego killed ten people from September 1978 to November 1980. Charlene Williams came from a supportive family, but her life fell into disrepair when she started using drugs. Things got even worse when she met and married a career criminal named Gerald Gallego. Their crime spree began on September 11, 1978, when they abducted two teenage girls. The Gallegos were caught abducting an engaged couple in November of 1980, and the police were promptly informed. This led to their arrests, and Gerald was sentenced to death. Charlene was given nearly seventeen years in exchange for testifying against her husband.

Henry Lee Lucas & Ottis Toole
The names Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole are well-known. For a time, it was believed that Lucas had killed over 600 people, making him the most prolific killer in American history. However, it was later found that these confessions were fabricated so that Lucas could enjoy rewards in prison. Lucas and Toole likely developed a sexual relationship after meeting in 1976, and the extent of their crimes remains ambiguous. Lucas was confirmed to have killed two people in 1983, and eight other victims remain disputed. Toole is widely suspected of having killed the young Adam Walsh in 1981. The nature of their crimes may forever remain uncertain, but they nevertheless conspired to fool the authorities and wasted precious time and resources in the process.

Ian Brady & Myra Hindley
Known as “the most evil woman in Britain,” Myra Hindley embarked on a horrific crime spree with her boyfriend, Ian Brady. Between July 1963 and October 1965, Brady and Hindley killed five young persons and dumped at least some of their bodies in the Saddleworth Moor. It’s because of this that their crime spree is now known as the Moors murders. One of their victims buried at the Moor was Lesley Ann Downey. The couple’s dealings with Downey were captured on tape and in various photos, ensuring that Brady and Hindley became infamous public enemies in Britain.

Charles Starkweather & Caril Ann Fugate
These two met in 1956, when Starkweather was eighteen and Fugate thirteen. Starkweather quickly grew attached to Fugate and dropped out of high school to be closer to her. The two eventually began a relationship, and Starkweather killed Fugate’s mother, stepfather and sister on January 21, 1958. They were Starkweather’s second, third and fourth victims, as he had killed a gas station attendant the previous November. Starkweather and Fugate then embarked on a crime spree throughout Nebraska and Wyoming that left a further seven people. Fugate claimed that she never personally took a life, but Starkweather said otherwise. Regardless, Starkweather was executed for his crimes, and Fugate was released from prison in 1976 after spending seventeen years behind bars.

Ray & Faye Copeland
From 1986 to 1989, Ray and Faye Copeland conspired to kill five men, although their victim count may be as high as twelve. The Copelands ran a farm in Mooresville, Missouri, but Ray was a proven fraud, so local providers refused to sell him cattle. To get around this, Copeland devised a scam. He would pick up drifters, write them fraudulent checks, and have them buy the cattle for him. He would then sell the cattle for a profit before the checks bounced and kill the drifter who bought it to ensure their silence. Despite the efforts of her defense team, Faye was found to be a knowing accomplice to her husband, and both were sentenced to death.

Alvin & Judith Neelley
In 1980, twenty-seven-year-old Alvin Neelley left his first wife and eloped with sixteen-year-old Judith Adams. Two years after their marriage, the Neelleys kidnapped the young Lisa Millican from a mall in Rome, Georgia. Millican was subsequently taken to an Alabama motel and killed. Just a few days later, the Neelleys did the same thing to Janice Chatman after shooting her fiancé, John Hancock. However, Hancock survived and reported the Neelleys to the authorities. They were promptly arrested, and eighteen-year-old Judith Neelley became the youngest American woman ever sentenced to death. However, this was later commuted to life in prison in 1999.

Inessa Tarverdiyeva & Roman Podkopaev
Hailing from Stavropol, Russia, Inessa Tarverdiyeva and Roman Podkopaev were part of the “Gang of Amazons.” This serial-killing family also consisted of the couple’s two children, Viktoria and Anastasiya. The entire family was supposedly aided by Podkopaev's sister and her husband, a law enforcement officer who fed the family inside information. Between 2007 and 2013, the Gang of Amazons embarked on a massive crime spree that left dozens dead. The victims included a Lieutenant Colonel and his family, and a patrol officer who pulled over Podkopaev and Viktoria. However, it was this confrontation that proved their downfall. Podkopaev was killed by responding officers, and the rest of the family was rounded up and arrested.