Recent Serial Killers 1970 to present (AP list)

10/11/02 | AP

[alisasny]

Oct. 11 — Some well-known serial killers in recent U.S. history:

1997-1999: Angel Maturino Resendiz was convicted of murdering a Houston woman, but was linked by confessions and evidence to at least 12 other killings nationwide. He's on death row in Texas.

1996-1998: Robert L. Yates Jr. was convicted of two murders but admitted to 15. He's on death row in Washington state.

1990-1993: Heriberto Seda, aka "the Zodiac Killer," killed three people and wounded four in New York City and is serving a 235-year sentence.

1989-1990: Aileen Wuornos, a rare female serial killer, was convicted of murdering six men while working as a prostitute along highways in central Florida. She was executed Wednesday.

1984-1985: Charles Ng and Leonard Lake were convicted of murdering 11 people. Ng is on death row in California; Lake committed suicide.

1984-1985: Richard Ramirez was convicted of killing 14 people during break-ins in the Los Angeles area. He is on California's death row.

1979-1981: Wayne B. Williams of Atlanta was convicted and sentenced to two life terms for killing two boys, but police believed he may have been responsible for up to 28 deaths.

1978-1995: Theodore Kaczynski, aka "the Unabomber," carried out a series of mail bombings that killed three people and injured 23. He is serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Colorado.

1978-1992: Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to 16 consecutive life terms for killing 17 men and boys, most in Milwaukee. He was killed in prison in 1994.

1977-1978: Ted Bundy was convicted of three Florida slayings, including that of a 12-year-old girl. He confessed to more than 30 and was executed in 1989.

1977-1978: Angelo Buono Jr. was convicted of murdering nine young California women and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Kenneth A. Bianchi pleaded guilty to five of the murders, agreeing to testify against his cousin in return for being spared a possible death sentence. He was sentenced to five concurrent life terms in prison.

1976-1977: David Berkowitz, aka "Son of Sam," killed six people and wounded seven others in New York City. He is serving six consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences.

1972-1978: John Wayne Gacy of suburban Chicago killed 33 young men and boys. He was executed in 1994.

February-May 1971: Juan Corona was convicted of murdering 25 farm workers whose bodies were found buried near Yuba City in northern California. He is serving a life sentence.

2002 The Associated Press.

[joesnuffy]

Planned Parenthood...
The all time champs...pile of little bodies to the moon.... sigh......
and the liberal democrats thrist for their blood hasnt abated one iota...a thirst impossible to slake..
Vampires living off the blood of patriots and pre-born children..

[breakem]

The ones on death row in CA just change their sentences to death by old age.

[Steely Tom]

You forgot:

Joel Rifkin, the Long Island killer of prostitutes, and Thomas Lee Dillon, Ohio's "Hunter of Humans." Also Colin Ferguson, the "LIRR killer."

(steely)

[NautiNurse]

I saw that one while searching for info about the I-10 sniper. I don't think he's the one, although I can't be certain. Thanks for checking! :o)

[fhayek]

I think that this killer is not in the serial killer/mass murderer mode. I believe that he is a highly diciplined professional. A hired assassin perhaps. His killings are very cold blooded. He isn't doing this to get his jollies. IMHO.

[browardchad]

Add to the list the Yahweh Ben Yahweh murders.

From the Miami Herald, October 15, 2001:

MONTREAL -- The Nation of Yahweh had much to celebrate when members gathered in Montreal, their ''New Promised Land,'' last week.

Their leader and messiah, Yahweh Ben Yahweh, 65, just got out of prison after serving nearly 10 years for his part in 14 Miami murders in the 1980s. Their numbers are growing again, and they have come out of hiding.

But the question is: Is their message the same?

In the 1980s, the best of it was to make blacks feel empowered. The worst of it was to brainwash those who became Yahwehs to the degree that they would shout that they would ''die for Yahweh . . . kill for Yahweh.''

Then do it.

At their Montreal conference last week, attended by about 600 Yahwehs in characteristic white robes and turbans, there was no promise to either die, or kill for Yahweh.

Yet, more than ever before, most Yahwehs cast themselves as a nation of believers at war with nonbelievers, and the old message of self-esteem has been crowded out by one that elevates their leader to ''Grand Master of All, the God of the Universe, the Grand Potentate, the Everlasting Father and the persecuted Messiah.'' The new message also is more stridently jingoistic, including a ''Pledge of Allegiance'' to Yahweh Ben Yahweh.

''What's different now is that the U.S. is not just a corrupt society in their eyes, it's one that the global nation of Yahwehs is ready to take on. We have become the Infidel,'' said Richard Scruggs, former Yahweh federal prosecutor.

Yet Wendelyn Rush, a Yahweh member and attorney, cautions against demonizing their mission: ''It's not a violent war, it's a war of words,'' she said at an August federal hearing to decide on Yahweh Ben Yahweh's parole restrictions.
[...]

At Yahweh Ben Yahweh's trial in 1992, federal prosecutor Scruggs noted that Yahweh Ben Yahweh had gone from being a poor kid in a dusty Oklahoma town to an Air Force airman to a Black Muslim leader to a radio Christian evangelist to a self-declared prophet the center of the religion he founded, to saying he was the Son of God.

''It took you a while to work your way up, didn't it?'' Scruggs said.

''Certain things were revealed to me with time,'' Yahweh Ben Yahweh replied.

[NautiNurse]

He isn't doing this to get his jollies

I don't know...he says he is God; he's on some kind of trip.

[I still care]

Years ago when I lived on Long Island there was a killer of this type. He shot several people in Suffolk county, one of them was sitting in a restaurant eating and was shot through the glass. The police got a break because I think they were able to figure out the weapon, and found out where it was bought from or stolen from. Does anyone remember this?

[Steely Tom]

The nice thing about gas stations (from the killer's pov, of course) is that they are well illuminated, and that people have to stand still while they pump their gas (here in NY State they don't allow self-serve pumps to have those little latch mechanisms in the valve handles, I don't know if this is true in VA and MD).

It almost seems like the killer has figured this out over time and has settled on this as an MO after trying out some other locations first.

I am amazed that this individual has been able to operate without a witness for so many days. I'm sure he doesn't have much time left. He's going to screw up soon. He has to do everything perfectly from this point on; even a single misstep will result in capture or death.

(steely)

[GoldMan]

"Why did they leave out the Zebra killers,

BTW, the ones who were caught and convicted were due to
be released from California prisons in 2002... "

2 Zebra killers denied Parole May 1 2002

[livius]

Very, very interesting.

There used to be a group of these people - I think they were associated with him, but maybe it was another strange black Islamic group - who would station themselves at various street corners in NYC (frequently in front of Macy's at 34th St.) and scream the most revolting things through their microphones. They were always urging the killing of Jews in particular and whites in general, and I never understood why they were allowed to stand there and spout this stuff.

Maybe because they were wearing what appeared to be Shriner outfits gone berserk - purple fezzes with long gold tassles and strange circus-like purple and gold costumes - they were considered to be just local loonies.

But they were full of hate, and I always considered them dangerous. If people like this have been recruited by radical Islamists, I think we're in trouble.

[livius]

Well, that's good news, at least!

[fhayek]

This is partly my point. He doesn't choose victims, he chooses opportunities. He isn't going after anybody in particular (race, sex, age, profession), he is looking for the situation where he is in control, where he can get a good shot off, where he may not be observed, where he can get away.

He takes one shot. He has been successfull 80% of the time, but if he is not, he doesn't wait around to find out, or take another shot that might give him away. Just one good shot. That is his objective.

He is so divorced from his actions that he is like a machine. Find an opportunity, get off one shot, make your getaway. Very dispassionate. If he keeps it up, he most certainly will screw up and get caught. But he adheres to his formula despite a massive manhunt. To me, this seems to indicate an experienced professional who can control the rush of adrenilin coursing through his veins.

[Steely Tom]

The gas station thing is making me think... I wonder if he isn't just sighting his weapon on a single point, like the area next to a particular pump, and then just holding still until someone walks into his crosshairs and stands still. Since he is, as you say, looking for opportunities, this method would give him the best probability of a one-shot one-kill outcome. He doesn't care who he kills.

This is horrible. FWIW I rate the ME terrorist theory at 50-50, and I am no conspiracy nut.

(steely)

[SelmaLee]

That's the 'railroad killer' alright. He stole the Month of June from a lot of frightened Southern Illinoisans in 1999. My daughter and I had been rock hunting in the Gorham area the week before the killings there. Count us among the scared witless back then, and count us as praying for the good people in the DC area now.

[Steely Tom]

Re: Railroad Killer.

I believed he used the moniker "Side Track."

(steely)

[runningbear]

you are kind of stating what Mark Furman(sp) was saying on the Sean Hannity show today. He equated it to that boyfriend\girl slaying randomly I believe decades ago in the midwest. I think he was mentioned here in the list. Also, that this person is cold and calculated in the victims, like a sport, whereas, a mental killer knows the targets that set him or her off. The perp is getting off in all the publicity and news.

Long ago, I saw this sci fi flick where the killer invites people, and then makes them become the Safari type sport in hunting them down. Animal kingdom of who survives, the hunter or the hunted. Naturally in the flick, the hunted outwits the hunter.. ;o)

A good tip Mark stated is that this person is targeting victims at gas stations, and sooner or later, this vehicle has to refuel somewhere, so that is where some focus should be in seeking the perp.

What was the talk on some female companion seen in the vehicle today?

You're right, sooner as each attempt to commit another murderous act, mistakes are going to be made. They are now, and evidence is being collected and compiled to profile this nut further.
My opinion, when he becomes in focus of LEO's gunshots, bang.... taken out!

[TX Bluebonnet]

Don't forget the ever so charming Henry Lee Lucas.

[socal_parrot]

Two others of note are, "Freeway Killer" William Bonin who killed 21 in Southern California and was executed in 1996 and Randy Kraft, the "Southern California Strangler" who killed 16 and is on California's death row.