20 Terrifying Serial Killers Who Are Free Right NOW

20-Terrifying-Serial-Killers-Who-Are-Free-Right-Now

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at famous serial killers who are currently not in prison. We include some who were never caught, provided it’s theoretically possible they are still alive.

The Little Rock Slasher

Police in Arkansas believe that there is an active serial killer on the loose, and he goes by a number of names like The River City Ripper and The Little Rock Slasher. The city saw a rash of stabbings between August 2020 and April 2021, with four people being stabbed at random while walking alone at night. Three of the victims died. The fourth survived her attack and told police that she was accosted by a Black man who was tall, young, and slender. A reward of $20,000 has been established for the man’s capture, but nothing has come to fruition and an investigation is currently ongoing.

Charles Sobhraj

Often, life in prison doesn’t actually mean life in prison. Infamous for stalking Asia’s hippie trail during the ‘70s, Sobhraj is suspected of murdering between 12 and 30 people, primarily young Western tourists. He avoided detection for many years, earning the moniker “The Serpent.” However, Sobhraj was finally caught and jailed in 1976, and he was in and out of prison until 2022. In December of that year, the Supreme Court of Nepal ordered his release after serving 19 years of a life term. He was allegedly released due to old age, being 78 at the time. Sobhraj was deported back to France, where he is currently planning some films and hoping to sue those who imprisoned him.

Sammy Gravano

The only reason Sammy the Bull doesn’t meet your standard definition of a serial killer is because he was in the mob. A high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family, Gravano was involved in at least nineteen murders throughout his time in the mafia. Among his victims were his own brother-in-law, his best friend, Louis Milito, and the head of the Gambino family, Paul Castellano. His crime spree finally came to an end in 1991 when he decided to turn state’s evidence and testify against famous mobster John Gotti. In exchange for his information, Gravano was only given five years in prison. He was later busted on a drug trafficking charge but was released in 2017 and now, of all things, runs a YouTube channel.

The Freeway Phantom

Active in the Washington, D.C. area in the early 1970s, the Freeway Phantom targeted young African American girls and was known to have killed six individuals. Perhaps his most famous victim was Brenda Crockett, a young girl who was forced to call her own family after being abducted, likely to feed them inaccurate information and throw off the investigation. Despite a number of suspects, The Freeway Phantom remains unidentified with no strong leads pointing towards his current whereabouts or status. But given that these murders occurred in the early ‘70s, it’s entirely possible that he is still alive.

The Doodler

A unique killer, The Doodler earned his nickname because he often sketched his victims prior to killing them. In the mid ‘70s, The Doodler would meet his victims at gay nightclubs, take them to a private location, sketch them, then fatally stab them. It’s believed that he killed between six and sixteen people in this manner. Amazingly, three victims survived. However, no convictions were made due to the victims’ unwillingness to testify in court, as they did not wish to publicly out themselves as gay. As it is, The Doodler has remained unnamed. He was described as being in his early 20s, so provided he’s still alive, he would currently be in his early 70s.

David McGreavy

Also known as The Monster of Worcester, David McGreavy committed one of Britain’s most shocking crimes in 1973. On the night of April 13, McGreavy was minding the three children of his friend Clive Ralph. But when Clive and his wife Elsie returned home, David was gone - and so were their children. Upon a further search of the area, investigators found the bodies of the three in a neighbor’s yard. McGreavy served over four decades in prison before being controversially released on parole in 2018, the motive being that he had “changed considerably” while inside.

Arnfinn Nesset

This unassuming man once seemed like a stand-up citizen. After finishing school, Nesset quickly became head nurse at a Norwegian nursing home. When the number of deaths in the facility became suspiciously high however, the police got involved. It is suspected that Nesset may have been responsible for up to 138 deaths, but he only admitted to 27 when interrogated. In 1983, he was found guilty of murdering 22 patients and sentenced to 21 years in prison, which was Norway’s longest possible sentence at that time. After just 12 years in prison, he was released on “good behavior” and is now walking the streets under a pseudonym.

Mitchell Johnson

Nowadays it seems as if there is a violent shooting every month, but this wasn’t the case in 1998 when middle school students Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden shocked the nation. On March 24, 1998, Johnson and Golden wounded ten people and killed five after pulling the fire alarm in a middle school in Arkansas. They then shot at the students and teachers who were evacuating the school. They were found guilty of five counts of murder and imprisoned until they reached 21, which was the maximum under Arkansas law. After serving seven and nine years respectively, the two were released. Johnson remains free, while Golden died in a car accident in 2019.

The Monster of Florence

Between 1968 and 1985, sixteen people were killed in eight double homicides inside the greater Florence area. The victims were couples who had ventured into remote areas to become intimate. Despite the first murder occurring in 1968, it wasn’t until 1981 that the police realized they were connected, and an investigation led them to two men - Mario Vanni and Giancarlo Lotti. These men were allegedly part of a larger gang of murderers, but they were only convicted on four of the eight double homicides. Furthermore, their supposed guilt has been questioned and doubted by many legal experts. The other members of the supposed gang - including the ringleader - have never been caught. That is, if it’s even a gang in the first place…

Wolfgang Abel & Marco Furlan

Between 1977-84, Abel and Furlan went on a killing spree, targeting unhoused people, gay people, sex workers, those with substance use disorder, and priests they deemed “sinful”. At each crime scene was a pamphlet with Nazi images declaring that the victims were killed for being “sub-human.” After an initial 30-year sentence, both men were released as a result of an appeal process, during which time Furlan fled the country. After his recapture, the two were subsequently sentenced to 27 years. Furlan was released in 2009 and Abel in 2013.

Louis Van Schoor

Also known as the Apartheid Killer, Louis Van Schoor was a security guard who was in the employ of businesses in South Africa throughout the mid 1980s. He is suspected to have shot over 100 people and killed 39 while working as a guard. While on duty, he would approach businesses that had a tripped silent alarm and shoot the alleged burglars - almost exclusively people of color. He claims that his killings were not racially motivated, and he likes to refer to himself as a “crime fighter.” Regardless of what he calls himself, he was given 20 years in prison for seven counts of murder, and was released after 12 years served.

The Smiley Face Gang

If you believe retired NYPD detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, then there are a number of unsolved murders in the American midwest. They theorize that one or more serial killers was active in the general area from the late ‘90s to the 2010s, killing upwards of 45 individuals. According to local law enforcement agencies and the FBI, these deaths were attributed to alcohol-related drownings, but Gannon and Duarte are convinced that they are connected. Their hypothesis is backed by criminal justice professor Dr. Lee Gilbertson, who publicly endorsed the theory on “Larry King Live” back in 2009. If their assumptions are correct, then not one person has been arrested in connection to the alleged killings.

Mika Muranen

The role of the military in any country should be to keep the nation and its citizens safe. In 1994 however, military conscript Mika Muranen brought the war home to Kotka, Finland. Dressed in uniform, he took a crossbow from his house and shot two of his neighbors. The next day, using an assault rifle he had stolen from his military base, he shot a mailman, before fleeing into the woods while shooting at random houses. After he was captured, he was sentenced to life in prison. However, after four previous attempts, he was granted parole in September 2014.

Charlene Gallego

Charlene Gallego, along with her husband Gerald, were serial killers who killed ten people, the majority of whom were teenagers, in the American West between 1978 and 1980. They would abduct people off the street and assault and murder them, earning themselves the moniker of The Love Slave Killers. After being captured, Charlene was offered a plea deal in exchange for testifying against Gerald, and she was subsequently sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison. While Gerald eventually died in prison while awaiting execution, Charlene was freed in July of 1997.

Aleksandr Rubel

From September 1997 to June 1998, Rubel (who was then a teenager) murdered six to eight people while high on gasoline vapors. His first victim, a neighbor with disabilities, was reportedly murdered simply because Rubel had an uncontrollable urge to kill someone. Having acquired a taste for murder, Rubel proceeded to kill several more people. Other murders of his include slitting the throat of a young girl and attacking a random passerby with an axe after asking for money. He was sentenced to 8 years, the maximum allowed for a minor, and now allegedly lives in Ukraine.

The Highway of Tears Killer

This is the name for a long stretch of road on British Columbia’s Highway 16, which has seen many disappearances and murders of local indigenous women. The exact number of victims remains unknown, but some estimates place it above 80. Even worse, these attacks have been going on unimpeded since 1970. A number of arrests have been made, but most of the murders remain unsolved. Unfortunately, there are many factors going into the high number of missing women, including Highway 16’s remote location and the prevalence of hitchhiking that occurs in the area owing to systemic poverty and a lack of public transportation.

Karla Homolka

Among Canada’s most notorious serial killers, Karla Homolka and her husband, Paul Bernardo, were responsible for assaulting and murdering three women, including Homolka’s sister, Tammy - who they drugged and assaulted. They then kidnapped two more minors off the street and did the same to them as well. When captured, Homolka struck a plea deal to testify against Bernardo, claiming a diminished role in the murders. However, this was later found to be a lie. She was sentenced to 12 years and was released in 2005. What’s she doing now? Recently she caused an uproar for volunteering at her daughter’s elementary school in Quebec.

Lainz Angels of Death

Throughout the 1980s, the Lainz Angels of Death were employed as nurse’s aides in Austria. After one of the Angels killed a patient with a morphine overdose, she discovered her lust for power and talked her friends into joining her foray into murder. Over the years, they allegedly killed upwards of 200 patients by holding their noses and filling their mouths with water until they drowned. After being caught discussing their latest kill in a bar, they confessed to 49 of the murders. Their sentences ranged from 15 years to life, but as of 2008, all have been released and are walking free.

Pedro López

Lopez was a mass murderer who says he assaulted and killed up to 300 girls throughout Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador in the late 70s. He claimed to have killed around three a week, and he confessed to murdering over 300. He was found guilty on 110 counts of murder and was sentenced to 16 years in prison, which was Ecuador’s highest form of punishment. After later being held in a psychiatric hospital, he was released on bail in 1998, and disappeared. While he could have been recaptured, he could also be free, or even dead. No one really knows, and isn’t that even more terrifying?

The Zodiac Killer

And here we come to a legendary serial killer who has commanded America’s attention for decades. The Zodiac has remained an enduring figure of pop culture since his crime spree in the late ‘60s that left at least five people dead. The case has many famous aspects, including Zodiac’s correspondence with the media and the elusive cryptograms that he published through the local newspapers. And of course, there’s one other aspect that has allowed the story to remain so popular - he was never caught. Eyewitnesses have given wildly different ages for the Zodiac, but many have placed him in his 30s. So, while he would be very old, it’s entirely possible that the Zodiac is still alive…and out there somewhere.

Does this keep you up at night? Let us know in the comments below!