Perhaps best title for the article about 15 most prolific serial killers of all time would be “Here be Monsters”, because despite all of their psychological problems, it is hard to describe them as anything else but monsters.
Nicknames like Pologovsky Maniac, The ABC Killer, The Chessboard Killer, The Green River Killer or The Monster of the Andes have all been on the covers of the newspapers all over the world during the trials that revealed just how cruel a human being can be. Most often, these serial killers preyed on weak and unprotected, young girls and elderly people or people living on the margins of our society, like prostitutes and homeless, which is one of the reason why some of their killing sprees lasted for years. If a single victim was a member of a royal family, things would probably be different. Their cowardly acts have ruined hundreds of families by taking their loved ones in the most brutal fashion, inflicting maximum amount of pain before killing them, and all for no apparent reason, except to satisfy the demons that haunted them.
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Numerous studies have been performed on the psychology of the serial killers over time. Several theories have been developed, explaining from a biological or sociological point of view the reasons why these crimes happen. Yet, we are still no closer to preventing them. Whether their motives are lust, thrill, control, or simply a voice in their head telling them they must kill, most prolific serial killers have managed to live lives resembling our own. For the most part, they were discovered because they were caught in the act or they left enough evidence on the scene for the police to be able to track them down. Rarely have they been apprehended because their behavior was out of ordinary.
The list below of 15 most prolific serial killers of all time is not for everyone, but we recommend you read it anyway. If for no other reason, then perhaps you may see their methods and better protect yourself and your loved ones.
15.Serhiy Tkach
Nickname: Pologovsky Maniac
Confirmed victims: 36
Suspected victims: 80–100
Country: Ukraine
Status: in prison, life sentence
Serhiy Tkach was a police investigator. His favorite victims were girls aged 8 to 18, whom he strangled. He performed sexual acts on their dead bodies. Tkach was convicted of 36 counts of murder in 2008 to life imprisonment, although he claimed that he killed 100 people. Before he was apprehended, 9 people were wrongfully sentenced to prison for the act he committed.
14.Moses Sithole
Nickname: The ABC Killer; The South African Strangler; The Gauteng Killer
Confirmed victims: 38
Suspected victims: 38+
Country: South Africa
Status: in prison, sentenced to 2,410 years
Moses Sithole’s killing spree was dubbed ABC murders, because of the locations he chose: Atteridgeville, Boksburg, and Cleveland. He lured his victims, all women, by offering them a job. He would then take them to a remote location, beat and rape them and finally strangle them, usually with their own underwear. Even President Nelson Mandela pleaded to public for help in catching him. Moses Sithole was apprehended in 1995. It is feared that he is responsible for more than 38 killings he is convicted of.
13.Ahmad Suradji
Nickname: Dukun AS
Confirmed victims: 42
Suspected victims: 70–80+
Country: Indonesia
Status: Executed by firing squad
Between 1986 and 1998 Ahmad Suradji killed 42 women, believing that the ghost of his father ordered him to do it. The bodies were buried around his house, with heads pointed towards it, because Suradji believed such position would give him more power. He was a dukun (a sorcerer) and women came to him for spiritual assistance. His three wives, who were all sisters, were arrested with him. Suradji was sentenced to death and executed in 2008.
12.Wang Qiang
Confirmed victims: 45
Suspected victims: 45+
Country: China
Status: Executed
Not much is known about Wang Qiang, one of China’s most prolific serial killers. He never went to school because his father didn’t allow it. Once arrested, he confessed to 45 murders, mostly women. During his trial he never showed any emotions or regret. Even his public defender was hoping for a death sentence, which court promptly delivered and Wang Qiang was executed in 2003.
11.Alexander Pichushkin
Nickname: The Chessboard Killer; The Bitsa Park Maniac
Confirmed victims: 48
Suspected victims: 60
Country: Russia
Status: in prison, life sentence
Alexander Pichushkin is one of the most interesting cases in criminal psychology. Pichushkin was a regular child until he fell off a swing and suffered a sharp blow to the forehead. After that, he became hostile and was transferred to a special school. He started killing in 1992, when he was 18. His primary targets were elderly homeless people around Moscow’s Bitsa Park he lured with free vodka. By the time he was arrested, he had claimed to have killed 64 people, one for each square on a chessboard. He is convicted of 49 murders. His sentence was life in prison, with first 15 years to be spent in solitary confinement.
10.Gary Ridgway
Nickname: Green River Killer
Confirmed victims: 49
Suspected victims: 71–90+
Country: United States of America
Status: in prison, life sentence
Gary Ridgway or Green River Killer, named so after the area where first bodies of his victims were found, was sentenced to life in prison for 49 murders, mostly prostitutes. Ridgway himself claims he can’t remember how many did he killed, so the number could be much higher. Even so, he is the most prolific serial killer in the US history.
9.Anatoly Onoprienko
Nickname: The Beast of Ukraine; The Terminator; Citizen O
Confirmed victims: 52
Suspected victims: 52+
Country: Ukraine
Status: died in prison while serving a life sentence
Preying on families living in isolated houses, Onoprienko always followed the same method. He would kill the father first, then the mother and finally the children, followed by any witnesses who had a misfortune of being nearby. He was arrested 17 days after police arrested and tortured to death a 26-year-old Yury Mozola, suspecting him for some of the Onoprienko’s murders. Onoprienko confessed to 52 murders, but it is suspected there are more of his undiscovered victims. The only reason he escaped death penalty was because Ukraine abolished it year earlier. Anatoly Onoprienko died in prison in 2013.
8.Andrei Chikatilo
Nickname: The Butcher of Rostov; The Red Ripper; The Forest Strip Killer; The Rostov Ripper
Confirmed victims: 53
Suspected victims: 56
Country: Soviet Union
Status: Executed
Andrei Chikatilo is the most famous among Russia’s serial killers, with several movies, books, and TV shows made about him and his killing spree lasting 12 years, from 1978 to 1990. He was sentenced to death for 53 murders, with 4 more he confessed, but wasn’t charged for. The 1995 movie Citizen X is based upon his story, starring Di=Donald Sutherland and Max von Sydow. Andrei Chikatilo was executed with a single gunshot in the back of the head in 1994, after President Boris Yeltsin refused to pardon him. Aleksandr Kravchenko was wrongfully sentenced to death and executed for Chikatilo’s first murder in 1983.
7.Abul Djabar
Confirmed victims: 65
Suspected victims: 300+
Country: Afghanistan
Status: Hanged
Abul Djabar preferred to strangle his victims with a turban while raping them. He was caught in the act in 1970 and convicted to death for 65 murders, although he was suspected for more than 300 killings. Before he was apprehended, two people were sentenced to death for his crimes and executed. Despite his final death toll remaining unknown, Abul Djabar earned a place among 15 most prolific serial killers of all time.
6.Yang Xinhai
Nickname: Monster Killer
Confirmed victims: 67
Country: China
Status: Executed
Yang Xinhai is the most prolific serial killer in China. He confessed and was sentenced for 67 murders and 23 rapes. His killing spree lasted from 1999 to 2003, across four provinces. The only thing that could serve as a clue for a motive for his killing was this quote of his: “When I killed people I had a desire. This inspired me to kill more. I don’t care whether they deserve to live or not. It is none of my concern…I have no desire to be part of society. Society is not my concern.” Yang Xinhai was executed in 2004.
5.Kampatimar Shankariya
Confirmed victims: 70
Suspected victims: 70+
County: India
Status: Hanged
In a short span of just a year, Kampatimar Shankariya killed at least 70 people in Rajasthan with a hammer. He later told the police that killing filled him with pleasure. Kampatimar Shankariya was hanged in 1979. He was 27 years old at the time of death.
4.Pedro Rodrigues Filho
Nickname: Pedrinho Matador (Killer Petey)
Confirmed victims: 71
Suspected victims: 100+
Country: Brazil
Status: Unknown
Pedro Rodrigues Filho is Brazil’s most prolific serial killer, although he saw himself as a vigilante. He killed his first man when he was 14, an assistant Mayor of his hometown, for firing his father. He also killed his father, for killing Pedro’s mother with a machete. Arrested in 1973, he proceeded to kill 41 inmates while in prison. He was sentenced to more than 400 years in prison for the total of 71 murders, although it is suspected he killed a lot more people. Because Brazilian law only allows a maximum sentence of 30 years, he was released in 2007. In 2011, local media reported he was back in prison, but it is an unconfirmed report.
3.Daniel Camargo
Confirmed victims: 73
Suspected victims: 150
Country: Colombia
Status: killed in prison
Daniel Camargo was first sentenced to prison in 1964, for sexual assault. In 1973 he was arrested again, after the kidnapping, raping, and killing a nine-year-old girl. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1984, he escaped from Gorgona Island prison (a Colombian version of Alcatraz) and ran to Ecuador, where he continued to rape and kill girls. He was apprehended and sentenced for 72 murders to a maximum sentence under Ecuadorian law, 16 years. Daniel Camargo was killed in prison by another inmate in 1994.
2.Pedro López
Nickname: The Monster of the Andes
Confirmed victims: 110
Suspected victims: 310–350+
Country: Colombia
Status: Free, whereabouts unknown
Listed by the Guinness World Records as the most prolific serial killer of all time, Pedro López confessed to more than 310 rapes and murders of young girls in at least three countries, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. He was sentenced for 110 of them in Ecuador to, you’ve guessed it, 16 years. Pedro López was released from prison in 1998 and his whereabouts are currently unknown. Perhaps it is time for Ecuador to rethink its penal policy, before they have another children mass murderer on their hands.
1.Luis Garavito
Nickname: The Beast
Confirmed victims: 138
Suspected victims: 172–400+
Country: Colombia
Status: In prison, eligible for early release in 2018
With 138 confirmed murders, Luis Garavito is the most prolific serial killer of all times. He subjected his victims, young girls mostly, to torture and rape, before cutting their throats and dismembering their bodies. The maximum sentence Colombian law allows is 40 years, but Garavito received 22 tears prison term, because he helped police in finding bodies of his victims. Unlike Ecuador, Colombia learned its lesson and had since increased the maximum sentence for such heinous acts to 60 years.
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