Can you name the deadliest creatures on Earth? Well, to your surprise those are not sharks, snakes or blood-sucking parasites, but human beings that top the list of deadliest creatures on Earth. From mysterious Jack the Ripper who stalked through the dark streets of London to Belle Gunness who married to kill, these notorious people have created history with their monstrous acts that will shake your soul.
Check out the list of history’s most evil and notorious serial killers the world has ever witnessed:
Jack the Ripper
In 1888, a brutal serial killer wandered through the city streets of London’s Whitechapel district. The psycho killer whose identity is still unknown lured prostitutes into darkened streets of London before ripping their throats and cruelly dissecting their bodies with a carving knife. The killer allegedly sent several letters to the London Metropolitan Police Service, mocking officials about his horrific doings and speculating on future murders.
Despite rigorous hunt, Victorian police were unable to find the Ripper. He finally vanished after his last murder and the case was closed in 1892. Some theories propose that Ripper was possibly a butcher or a surgeon. There are more than 100 possible suspects but Jack the Ripper is still the history’s biggest mystery.
H. Holmes
Before starting his career as a pharmacist in Chicago, Illinois in 1893, H.H. Holmes used to be an insurance scammer. There, he built a “murder castle”, which as a three-story hotel that he turned into a gruesome assault chamber. The castle was equipped with terrifying things such as hidden peepholes, trap doors, gas lines, trap doors, secret passages, soundproofed padding, surgical table, furnace, ladders, and hallways that led to nothing.
Before and during the Chicago World’s Fair, Holmes used to suffocate his victims, mostly women, with poisoned gas and take them to his surgical table for experiments. The bodies were either disposed of in the furnace or the skeletons were sold to medical schools. Holmes was finally imprisoned for the murders of four people, but he admitted to at least 27 more murders. Holmes was hanged to death in the year 1896.
Belle Gunness
Also known as the “Lady Bluebeard”, Belle Gunness’s murder spree allegedly began in 1900 when her husband was found dead in his candy store that had mysteriously burned down. Since no firm evidence was obtained against Gunness, she was able to obtain several insurance policy payouts. With the proceedings of insurance policy, Gunness bought a farm in La Porte, Indiana and remarried, again with a bloody intention. Her second husband also died just eight months later and again, no evidence was found against Gunness, which lead to another huge insurance payout. Following that, Belle started placing newspaper ads in search of a third husband. The ad required potential suitors to visit her Indiana farm, and surprisingly all of them disappeared.
In 1908, the bodies of Gunness’ children and the beheaded corpse of a woman were found on the farm which got damaged by the fire. Although police officials identified the corpse as Gunness’, many people doubted it as the body was smaller than that of tall and heavy Gunness. Moreover, the missing head was also never found, though officials managed to do the horrific discovery of around twelve bodies, including the missing suitors and several children.
Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy was a handsome, well-educated and charming man born to an unwed, teenaged mother. After graduating from the University of Washington, Bundy began his murder spree in Seattle in 1966, focusing mainly on college co-eds. He murdered several men and women before being arrested. He escaped police custody twice while waiting for the trial in Colorado. He continued to murder people until he was finally caught while driving a stolen car. His trial quickly became a hot media talk as it was the first murder trial to be completely televised. In 1989, Ted Bundy was finally executed in the electric chair.
Harold Shipman
Harold Shipman, an English general practitioner, also known as the “Dr. Death”, is alleged to have killed more than 218 patients during his medical practice in London from 1972 to 1998. His immoral acts remain unnoticed until 1998 when another doctor and an undertaker noted a strangely high count of cremation certificates signed by Shipman, with a weird fact that the majority of cases were of elderly women who were found sitting up at the time of death. The initial police investigation was carelessly handled which lead to more deaths.
Shipman was finally caught when the daughter of his last victim, named Kathleen Grundy, asserted that he also tried to create a fake will, naming himself as her only beneficiary. The Grundy’s autopsy was done, which revealed dangerously high levels of diamorphine drug in the body. Harold Shipman was officially convicted for 15 murders and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 2000. In 2004, he committed suicide and was found dead in his cell.
John Wayne Gacy
Who could have imagined that a friendly clown can also turn into a serial killer! John Wayne Gacy, also known as “Killer Clown”, was a construction worker who was known by his neighbors as an extrovert who loved to throw block parties. Although he used to dress up and act as a clown in kids’ birthday parties, his actual personality was completely different.
John Wayne was roped in by the police in 1978 when a 15-year-old boy, who was last seen with him, went missing. A search warrant was obtained to the Gacy’s home, where they found decomposing bodies of around 30 teenagers under a 4-foot crawl space beneath his home. John was imprisoned for 33 murders, with additional charges of rape and assault. He was finally executed in 1994 by lethal injection.
Ed Gein
Ed Gein was a psycho killer who grew up in an isolated area of Wisconsin. His alcoholic father used to abuse him and his puritanical and dominant mother instilled in him a compulsive fear of both women and sex.
After the death of his father, brother, and mother, Ed restricted some parts of the farmhouse by turning them into a shrine. After thirteen years or so, when local police raided his place regarding missing hardware store owner, Bernice Worden, they found his decapitated corpse hanging upside down. During the property inspection, they also discovered a hall of horrors where real human body parts were converted into household items such as chairs, wall hangings, and more. It is believed that Gein had stolen those bodies from their grave. Apart from Worden, Gein had also murdered a woman. During interrogation, Ed asserted that he was collecting body parts to create a new version of his mother. Gein was declared unfit for trial because he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. After ten years, he was charged with murder. But since Gein was declared mentally unstable at the time of the crime, he was sent to the mental hospital instead, where he spent the rest of his life.
Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer’s murder spree began in 1978 when he was just 18 years old and he continued his monstrosity until his arrest in 1991. Dahmer was a college drop out who also left the army and used to spend his life with his family until his grandmother kicked him out. He ultimately settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Just three years before Dahmer was convicted for a murder charge in 1991, he was arrested for being a drug addict and sexually assaulting a young teenager. After serving in jail for one year, Dahmer continued his murder spree focusing on young, black men. In 1991, he was caught when an African American man managed to escape his shackles and reached police near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When the police searched Dahmer’s apartment, they found terrifying photographs of dissected bodies, in addition to the victims’ heads, and genitalia of men. They also found an acid tub that Dahmer allegedly used to dispose of his victims. Dahmer was finally sentenced to 957 years imprisonment in 1992 but a fellow inmate killed him after 2 years.
Pedro Lopez
Pedro Lopez, a Colombia serial killer, is alleged to be involved in over 300 rapes and murders across Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, out of which at least one-third of murders reported were of tribal women. Others were children from poor backgrounds. Lopez was arrested in 1980 after which police officials discovered the graves of over 50 victims.
Also known as “Monster of the Andes”, Lopez was later charged for murdering 110 girls in Ecuador, but he admitted to 240 more murders in Colombia and Peru. He was sentenced to maximum life imprisonment of 16 years, but released sooner for his good behavior in 1998.
John George Haigh
Also known as the ‘Acid Bath Murderer’, John George Haigh actively murdered people during the 1940s. John was put behind the bars for the murder of 6 people. He was a conman who used to target only rich people. He used his charm to bring wealthy targets into a warehouse and shoot them. After killing, he used to dissolve their bodies in sulphuric acid so that no traces of evidence can be found. Later, he used to forge papers to sell their victims’ belongings and obtain their life savings.
In 1949, police raided a warehouse owned by John George Haigh where they found several drums and containers of concentrated sulphuric acid. They also had terrifying sightings of melted human body fat, gallstones, part of a human foot, and a denture. Haigh was finally sentenced to death and executed in 1949.
