Top 20 Scariest Real Life Killers You've Never Heard Of

#20: The Harpe Brothers

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Top 10 Scariest Real-Life Killers You've Never Heard Of

This duo holds a special place in true crime history, yet few people have heard of them. Perhaps that’s owing to how long ago their crimes were. Micajah “Big” Harpe and Wiley “Little” Harpe are the first known serial killers in American history. Their crimes spanned the Southeastern United States in the late 18th century. Taking advantage of the remote isolation of the Appalachian Mountains, the brothers would kill settlers coming south after the American Revolution. Their true number of victims remains unknown, but most estimates place it between 39 and 50. Their actions attracted vigilante attention, and Micajah was brutally killed by a posse in 1799. Wiley was eventually caught and executed in 1804.

#19: Alexander Pichushkin

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One of the most notorious Russian serial killers in modern history, Alexander Pichushkin killed up to 60 people between 1992 and 2006. He became known as the Chessboard Killer, and Bitsa Park Maniac, after the Moscow park where most of his crimes occurred. Many of his victims were elderly vagrants whom he attracted with the promise of vodka, company, and a good chat. He would then strike them with the bottle or a hammer. Pichushkin was finally caught in 2006 after killing co-worker Marina Moskalyova. Surveillance footage from a train station captured Moskalyova with Pichushkin, and he was finally taken in for questioning. He readily confessed to his crimes and is now spending life in prison.

Female serial killers don’t often get recognition, even if they’re as bad as Dorothea Puente. Known in the media as the Death House Landlady, Puente operated a boarding house in Sacramento that took in tenants who were elderly, developmentally disabled, or had substance use issues. Between 1982 and 88, Puente killed nine of her patrons and committed fraud by collecting their pensions and social security checks. Seven bodies were buried on the property of her boarding house, and another was dumped in a box by a river. Puente was eventually caught after killing Alvaro Montoya, as his social worker had reported him missing. She was convicted of three homicides and given life in prison. She died in 2011 at the age of 82.

#17: David Parker Ray

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Better known as the Toy-Box Killer, David Parker Ray is not officially a serial killer, as he has never been lawfully linked to a homicide. However, many experts believe that he is responsible for up to 60 killings. Ray terrorized the American Southwest from 1957 to 1999. He would kidnap women and torture them in a trailer he called his “toy box”, before drugging and abandoning them or killing them. The details are too horrible to get into here. While he was never convicted of murder, Ray received 224 years in prison for abduction and torture. He died of a heart attack in 2002.

The awful crimes of Carl Panzram range from burglary and arson to sexual assault and murder. Born in 1891, Panzram had a difficult childhood with strict and abusive parents. As an adult, he moved around a lot and was in and out of prison for various offenses. In 1920, he bought a yacht, and sexually assaulted and murdered 10 sailors in New York. His crimes continued in Southern Africa, where he targeted young and vulnerable victims, which he continued to do on his return to the States. From prison, he confessed to 21 murders; but may have killed over one hundred. He was executed in 1930 at the age of 39.

When we think of the most infamous serial killers in American history, we think of Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and John Wayne Gacy. Few ever bring up Samuel Little, even though he has the highest victim count of any American serial killer. Little’s life of crime spanned decades. His first confirmed victim was 32-year-old Annie Stewart, who was strangled to death on October 11, 1981. However, his killing spree may have started over a decade earlier with the murder of Mary Jo Brosley in December 1970. After Little was arrested in 2012, he confessed to killing 93 women. The FBI has officially linked Little to 60 of these 93 killings. By comparison, Bundy killed at least 20, Dahmer 17, and Gacy 33.

#14: Robert Pickton

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Canada has also produced its fair share of serial killers, including Robert Pickton. The son of pig farmers in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, he and his brother David worked from a young age, and were bullied for stinking of pig manure in school. After inheriting the farm, the brothers held raves on the property in the 1990s. A police search in 2002 uncovered the remains of several missing women. Targeting drug addicts and sex workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Pickton had been murdering women on the farm. He was charged with 26 murders, but confessed to 49. It’s believed that Pickton fed some remains to his pigs; some may have been mixed with pork and sold to the public.

Despite the fact he’s the most prolific serial killer in modern history, Luis Garavito is little known outside of his native Colombia. As a child, he was beaten by his father, bullied in school, and abused by neighbors. He grew into an angry, antisocial alcoholic, obsessed with torturing and abusing minors, mostly male. He would sometimes wear a disguise to lure his victims to isolated spots. The horrific nature of what would happen next is just too gruesome to talk about here. In 1999, he was apprehended, and eventually sentenced to a combined 1,853 years in prison. He’s officially linked to 193 murders, but his confession would bring this to 221.

#12: Robert Hansen

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This serial killer was especially terrifying for the way he hunted down his victims. In his youth, Hansen was unpopular and became obsessed with the idea of revenge, especially against women. In 1967, he moved from Iowa to Anchorage, Alaska, where he worked as a baker. However, in the 1970s, he began abducting women, sexually assaulting them and flying them out to remote locations. He would then hunt them through the Alaskan wilderness. An escaped victim, Cindy Paulson, warned police, who at first took Hansen’s word over hers. Fortunately, famous criminal profiler John Douglas helped lead investigators back to Hansen. It’s believed that Hansen killed between 17 and 21 women. He died in 2014 while serving life in prison.

Modern historians have cast doubt on whether or not Clementine Barnabet actually committed the killings for which she has been blamed. However, she was officially convicted of one homicide and personally confessed to killing 35. Following her arrest, Barnabet claimed that she was given a magical Hoodoo talisman by a priestess of the Church of Sacrifice. Wanting to test its validity, she embarked on a series of ax murders throughout the state of Louisiana. She was eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison. However, she was subsequently released in 1923 and disappeared from the history books.

In his mugshot, Gerard John Schaefer looks like an everyday man: his hair combed to the right and a friendly smile plastered on his face. However, a second glance may be warranted after learning that he potentially killed 30 people throughout the 60s and 70s. Schaefer was a Florida sheriff's deputy when he kidnapped two teenage women and tied them to a tree in the forest. The women escaped after Schaefer received a call on his radio. Sadly, Susan Place and Georgia Jessup—whom he kidnapped two months later— weren’t so lucky. They were kidnapped, tied to a tree, and then killed. In 1973, Schaefer was given two life sentences, but he’s suspected of having over 30 victims.

While quite a big name in Texas, Vickie Dawn Jackson never gained national attention, despite killing at least 10 people in a three month span from December 2000 to February 2001. Working as a nurse in North Texas, Jackson used a paralyzer called mivacurium chloride on her elderly patients, which prevented their ability to breathe. The deaths didn’t raise any red flags owing to the age of the patients, but alarm bells started ringing once administrators noticed the missing mivacurium chloride. They came to suspect Jackson, as she was often the last person reported in the victims’ rooms before their deaths. A syringe used to administer mivacurium chloride was eventually found in her trash can, and she was subsequently charged and sentenced to life in prison.

Those from Louisiana may recognize Ronald Dominique as The Bayou Strangler, a serial killer who killed at least 23 men and boys between 1997 to 2006. Dominique frequented gay bars around Houma, Louisiana, and would tie up and assault the men he took home. He would then kill them to ensure their silence. In 2006 however, a survivor of Dominique’s contacted the police to voice his suspicions about the man. Dominique was arrested after DNA matched him to recovered corpses, putting an end to his crimes.

Between 1998 and 2001, Israel Keyes served in the United States Army. Fellow soldiers described him as a quiet alcoholic who would down entire bottles of whiskey. After leaving the military, Keyes began a criminal life committing bank robberies, burglaries, and arson. He also killed at least four people, although he’s suspected of a further seven. Perhaps his most famous victim is Samantha Koenig. The 18 year old was kidnapped from work, assaulted, and killed, her body left in a shed while Keyes went on a family vacation. Upon returning, he applied makeup to her body so she could pose for a ransom photo. Keyes was caught using her debit card and arrested, but he took his own life while awaiting trial.

#6: The Long Island Serial Killer

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It’s not often that modern day serial killers go unidentified, but the Long Island Serial Killer remains an exception. Also given other names like the Craigslist Ripper and Gilgo Beach Killer, the Long Island Serial Killer is suspected of killing up to 16 people between 1996 and 2010. Ten victims have been officially linked to the Long Island Serial Killer, as their remains were found in December 2010 and the spring of 2011. Of the ten, four were escorts who had advertised through Craigslist. Although there have been several suspects of note, the killer’s identity ultimately remains unknown.

Nicknamed The Son of Sal, Staten Island man Salvatore Perrone turned his frustrations with life into a bloody killing spree. His wife had left him and his business was failing, leaving him broke. In 2012 he began roaming the streets of Brooklyn and entering stores with Middle Eastern merchants. Arriving at closing time when the stores were empty, Perrone shot and killed three merchants with a sawed-off rifle. After police searched his home, they found a 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition, and duct tape. He also carried around a so-called “kill kit” that included switchblades, a serrated knife, bleach, and latex gloves. Perrone was convicted of all three killings and sentenced to 75 years to life in prison.

An old-timey serial killer also known as the Derby Poisoner, Lydia Sherman lived in the eastern United States between 1824 and 1878. She seemingly had no regard for human life - not even her own children. She reportedly killed three husbands with arsenic in a span of seven years, and disposed of eight children the same way—six of them being her own. All of these deaths were officially attributed to typhoid fever at the time, with no one being any the wiser to Sherman’s secret life as a serial killer. Sherman’s crimes eventually caught up to her, however, and she was sentenced to life in prison. She died of cancer at 53 in 1878.

#3: Amelia Dyer

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When it comes to 19th century serial killers, few are as prominent - or as sick - as Amelia Dyer. But even then, her name has mostly been lost to time. Living in Victorian England, Dyer was a baby farmer - an old practice in which people took in orphaned children in exchange for money. Unfortunately, Dyer had depraved ulterior motives for doing so. She killed the children she adopted, and while Dyer has only been officially linked to six deaths, her body count is often theorized to be somewhere between 200 and 400. If that’s true, it would make Dyer one of the most prolific killers in history. Dyer was finally caught in 1896 and hung at London’s Newgate Prison. Her last words? “I have nothing to say”.

#2: Patrick Mackay

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In his early 20s, Englishman Patrick Mackay became obsessed with Nazism. He was also a heavy drinker and drug user, and he claims to have committed his first killing by drowning a homeless man in the River Thames. A few years later, on March 21, 1975, he fatally attacked a priest with an axe. Following Mackay’s arrest, he became the prime suspect in dozens of killings, most of which occurred after the victim was robbed. Mackay has been officially tied to three deaths, but he personally claims to have killed 11. He was sentenced to life in prison and remains there to this day.

This man’s lack of mainstream attention is baffling, considering the extent and severity of his crimes. Accurately known as The Forgotten Cannibal, Denke was a Prussian man who killed up to 42 homeless people between 1903 and 1924 and ate their remains. Denke was a well-liked organist at his local Lutheran church and ran a food shop that sold various kinds of meat. Yeah, you know where this is going. It’s speculated that Denke served human meat to his loyal customers. Denke was caught in 1924 but took his own life before questioning could begin. When police searched his home, they found countless body parts, including 16 femurs, 120 toes, 65 feet, and 150 pieces of ribs. His motivation, and much of his grisly story, remains unknown.