These Smoking Guns Caught Serial Killers...

Smoking Guns that Caught Serial Killers

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be looking at the most crucial pieces of evidence that led to the arrest of notorious serial killers, bringing their reigns of terror to an end.

Ed Gein

Sales Receipt for Antifreeze
On November 16th 1957, Bernice Worden vanished from her hardware store in Plainfield, Wisconsin. Her son, Frank, searched the store later that day, and found the register open and bloodstains on the floor. He also discovered a receipt for antifreeze, the last one his mother had written before she disappeared. Frank recalled that the previous day, a local handyman named Ed Gein had visited the store and mentioned he would return the next morning to buy a gallon of antifreeze. This clue led to Gein’s arrest that same day. When authorities searched Gein’s farm, they discovered several corpses he had exhumed from local graveyards. Gein confessed to killing Worden and another woman, though it is believed he had up to nine victims in total.

Harold Shipman

Forged Will
Harold Shipman was a general practitioner in England, with a career spanning over two decades. However, suspicions arose when many of his seemingly healthy patients died under his care. The investigation into their deaths was complicated as most of these patients were cremated. Shipman’s luck ran out in 1998 after the death of 81-year-old Kathleen Grundy. Grundy's daughter knew something was amiss when she discovered a last-minute will that left her mother’s £386,000 fortune to Shipman. He was eventually arrested after Grundy’s body was exhumed and found to contain traces of morphine. Further investigation revealed Shipman owned the exact typewriter used to forge the will. Ultimately, he was convicted of 15 murders, although his total victim count is estimated to be around 250.

Dennis Nilsen

Clogged Drains
Referred to as the Muswell Hill Murderer, Dennis Nilsen was responsible for the deaths of at least 12 men and boys between 1978 and 1983. Nilsen lured his victims to his apartment, where he would strangle them and store their remains. As the smell of decomposing bodies grew stronger, Nilsen devised a grim solution: he began flushing the remains down his toilet in small pieces. This eventually clogged the drains in his apartment building. After a neighbor called a plumber to fix the issue, they discovered the shocking contents in the pipes. Nilsen attempted to clear out the drainage, but it was already too late. The police were called and they traced the human remains to his apartment, where he was arrested.

Andrei Chikatilo

His Soiled Clothes
One of the most infamous killers in Soviet history, Andrei Chikatilo terrorized the Rostov Oblast in Soviet Russia, claiming at least 52 lives. As his rampage went on, police launched an extensive manhunt. On November 6th 1990, Chikatilo murdered his final victim, Svetlana Korostik. Shortly after, he encountered undercover officer Igor Rybakov, who noticed that Chikatilo’s clothes were soiled with mud and leaves, and his cheek was smeared with blood. Despite his suspicious appearance, Rybakov had no reason to arrest Chikatilo, so he let him go but filed a report. When Korostik’s body was found days later, Chikatilo became a prime suspect and was placed under surveillance. He was finally arrested on November 20th, after which he confessed to 56 murders.

Gary Ridgway

Saliva Samples From a Previous Arrest
Many serial killers have confessed to dozens of murders that police couldn’t verify. However, with Gary Ridgway, they managed to confirm 49 murders, all of which he was convicted for. This makes Ridgway the second-most prolific American serial killer, by confirmed murders. Most of his crimes occurred in the 1980s and ‘90s, but he was able to evade capture for years, despite multiple arrests. After one such arrest in 1987, police collected and stored Ridgway’s hair and saliva samples. These samples wouldn’t come in handy until 2001 when investigators linked the saliva swabs to semen found in three of his victims. Ridgway was then arrested, convicted and sentenced to 49 life terms without the possibility of parole.

Joseph James DeAngelo

Sexual Assault Kit DNA
For decades, police held on to DNA evidence from a sexual assault kit, hoping to catch the man who murdered Charlene and Lyman Smith. It would later be discovered that this unidentified killer was also responsible for multiple burglaries, sexual assaults and murders across California between 1974 and 1986. This individual was referred to as the Golden State Killer. In 2017, detectives analyzed the DNA sample using forensic genetic genealogy, which led them to Joseph James DeAngelo, a former police officer living in California at the time of the crimes. DeAngelo was arrested in 2018 and ultimately pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

David Berkowitz

Parking Ticket
Known as the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz terrorized New York City for a year in the late 1970s. So alarming was his murder spree that thousands of women cut and dyed their hair when they learned he was targeting ladies with long, dark hair. Despite the fear he spread, it was a simple parking ticket that led to his arrest. On August 9th 1977, Berkowitz parked illegally at the scene of his final murder and was issued a ticket. A local resident named Cacilia Davis witnessed this and later encountered Berkowitz holding a “dark object.” After hearing the gunshots that claimed his final victim, Davis reported the encounter to the police, who traced the ticket to Berkowitz and arrested him.

Dennis Rader

Floppy Disk
Between 1974 and 1991, Dennis Rader, the self-proclaimed BTK killer, murdered at least 10 people in Kansas, mostly women. After the death of his last victim, Rader abruptly stopped killing and went silent. He probably would have gotten away with it, if not for his undying need for attention. In 2004, after years of inactivity, a local Kansas paper suggested that the killer was either dead or in prison. This spurred Rader to send letters to various media outlets, enclosing trophies from his crimes. In February 2005, Rader sent a floppy disk to a local TV station, unaware it had metadata tied to his church. With this, investigators identified Rader and arrested him after matching his daughter’s DNA to evidence from a crime scene.

Jeffrey Dahmer

Body Parts
Late on July 22nd 1991, two police officers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin were flagged down by Tracy Edwards, who was in handcuffs. Edwards led the officers back to the apartment of a man named Jeffrey Dahmer, who he claimed had threatened to kill him. Those officers had no idea they had entered the lair of one of America’s most notorious serial killers. For 13 years, Dahmer had eluded capture, ending the lives of 17 victims in that period. He might have been able to convince the cops that it was all a misunderstanding, if he didn’t have the dismembered remains of his victims scattered around the apartment. Once the officers made the grisly discovery, Dahmer’s spree effectively ended.

Albert Fish

His Own Anonymous Letter
Known as the Gray Man, Albert Fish was a serial killer with a grim habit of consuming his victims’ remains. His last known victim was Grace Budd, a young girl whose family he tricked into letting him take her to a birthday party in 1928. Tragically, that was the last time they saw her. The case went cold until 1934 when Fish sent Grace’s mother an anonymous letter describing the horrifying details of her death. Using a logo on the envelope, the police traced the letter to a residence Fish had recently stayed in and set a trap for him there. When Fish returned, they arrested him and he quickly confessed to Grace’s murder. He was found guilty and executed by electric chair.

Which of these cases terrified you the most? Let us know in the comments below.