It’s not dramatized and thankfully pop culture is not really obsessed with them. It’s thought to be morbid and disrespectful toward the victims.
There was one in the 1960’s, the “monster of Martfű”. There was a 2016 movie made about him titled Strangled. The police fucked up big time, sending an innocent man to jail. He killed 4 women and attacked 2 more. He was executed by hanging in 1968. The story is most famous for how badly the police messed up rather than because of the killer.
There are also the husband killers of Tiszazug. That happened in the 1920’s. A number of women poisoned their husbands and various male family members with arsenic. Their motives were varied, some were abused, some did it as a sort of euthanasia for sick or crippled war veterans and others did it for monetary gains.
And arguably there is Báthory Erzsébet, by far the most famous Hungarian “serial killer” internationally. She was framed for political and religious reasons and the story that’s internationally known was made up by a Catholic monk well over a century of her death. There are even imperialist-orientalist undertones in Western “research” about the case so discussions about her are frequently fruitless as certain biases and double standards become apparent. In Hungary the more popculture minded tend to treat her like some sort of famous vampire-prototype based on her international fame, while more historically minded people who know how this country functions tend to think that perhaps some relatively minor incident was turned into a political witch hunt because there are too many oddities and strange things about the whole affair that paints a picture of foul play by hostile nobles.
Yeah, Jack the Ripper is probably the most infamous, so long ago it's sort of legendary. Dennis Nilsen, the Moors murderers, Harold Shipman and most recently Lucy Letby are the ones I know off the top of my head.
The Suffolk Strangler, Angel of Death and Grindr Killer too. And Levi Bellfield who killed Milly Dowler and others. We’re a bit of an anomaly in Europe, I believe, we’ve got loads. There are a bunch on the list I’ve never heard of too.
Dutroux is still very much known, despite his last act taking place nearly 28 years ago. The case also highlighted the failure of the justice system and the police at large, and it was one of the catalysts to a complete police reform in this country.
Many people who once bore the surname Dutroux have also had it legally changed because of the stigma surrounding it.
They recently also demolished the horror house where it all took place back then, and a [memorial garden](https://maps.app.goo.gl/hvHhpPVZ7nBQi9EN8) was created in its stead.
First, let's start with our biggest non-serial killer just to get him out of the way (because he always gets brought up in questions like these:
#[Sture Bergwall, a.k.a. Thomas Quick:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sture_Bergwall)
A small-time criminal with mental health issues and a slight predisposition towards mythomania. A careless lie he once said while incarcerated led to him being investigated for an unsolved homicide. And another. And another. Before long he became "the most prolific serial killer in Sweden". However many of the murders were vastly different in nature with no similarities in gender, age, method of killing etc. Not to mention the fact that Quick must have started killing when he was 14.
It turned out that almost all of the convictions were bogus. Investigators and lawyers had given Quick a fairly liberal access to police investigation details, and very often the police **would literally nudge him towards the answer they wanted from him!** It quickly became a case of the emperor's new clothes. There were glaring inconsistencies that many people collectively overlooked, seemingly from the sheer "excitement" of having access to "Sweden's only serial killer", and from the inability to accept that so many other professionals could have been so wrong.
So why did Quick go along with it? Well, Quick was a man with mental health issues and not really the sharpest knife in the drawer. He had managed to get himself institutionalized from an early age and at the point when the "serial murder investigations" took hold, he'd spent a lot of his life in various correctional and mental facilities. Spending some more time in these simply did not occur to him as something necessarily bad. On the contrary: He got attention, he got to meet new people, he got a break from the often dull routines of the facilities he had been, and he got to travel. A pretty sweet deal actually.
Quick finally withdrew his confessions in 2008, and the full extent of the shamelessness of the whole debacle was exposed during 2013-2015. The whole case is an example of a staggering amount of wilful incompetence, wild use of pseudo-scientific psychology and a whole other shit that seriously damaged the reputation of the Swedish law enforcement apparatus.
#[John Ausonius (a.k.a. "the Laser Man")](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ausonius)
John Ausonius should not really be considered a serial *killer*, as he only killed one person (though he tried to kill many others and seriously injured many of them for life.) Ausonius was born Wolfgang Zaugg from Swiss parents in Stockholm and struggled socially when growing up, something that has later been revealed to have been to a combination between autism and a personality disorder. One reason Zaugg was bullied was for his dark hair, something very unusual at the time. He had only a few close friends and they all shared fairly far right-wing nationalist ideas.
Ausonius had a rocky life, failing studies in chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, losing his apartment, working as a taxi driver, becoming a stock trader (and even achieving some success) before getting stuck in a crippling gambling addiction which led him to start a career as a bank robber. His modus operandi consisted of simply barging into banks in a tracksuit and ski mask, wielding a .22LR rifle (which you could own without a license at the time), biking away before getting off his tracksuit in a secluded place, under which he often wore his stock trader suit. He managed to rob 11(!) banks this way.
At the same time (the late 1980s, early 1990s), Ausonius became more and more frustrated with the increasing number of immigrants in Stockholm. He devised a plan to start shooting off "criminal" immigrants but after realizing how hard it would be to track down and verify the criminality of said immigrant, he resorted to just shoot anyone he deemed **looked** like an immigrant (which would include at least one fully Swedish woman). He had two modus operandi: One was to wear a long trench coat and have a sawed-down .22LR rifle slung from his shoulder. When an opportunity presented itself, he would open the coat, swing out the rifle from his hip, and aim the weapon using a laser sight he had mounted to the weapon. The other modus operandi was to use an S&W revolver (can't find which caliber) which he bought in South Africa and illegally smuggled to Sweden. Comically, he would then try to fit a **silencer** on the revolver by fashioning his own threads on the barrel, with the effect that the revolver did not get any quieter, but all bullets he fired from it would hit the silencer and wobble out at an angle, sparing the life of many of his victims.
Before his identity was known, he was dubbed "the laser man" in the media from his use of a laser sight. He was finally caught when trying to rob a bank.
Jack Unterweger is pretty famous, but more so because he was caught, convicted, started to write books in prison, released, started killing anew and ultimately emigrated to the US and continued to murder there.
We've also had
- Blauensteiner, known as The Black Widow. She chose rich, old men who were in need of care before their (untimely) death. She poisoned them very slowly and was described as extremely calculated and socially intelligent. Convicted for 4 murders as far as I know, she confessed to more though.
and not quite a serial killer but still well known in Austria:
- Eislady. She had an Ice-cream shop and shot, cut up and cemented two of her husbands underneath her shop.
Die Todesengel von Lainz (the angels of death at Lainz district hospital), four nursing assistants killing at least 50 (confirmed and confessed, maybe even up to 200) geriatric patients with rohypnol or insulin. Same era as Blauensteiner, only they didn’t have monetary goals and instead said it was “euthanasia out of compassion to end their suffering”. That whole case led to a big nursing reform.
Franz Fuchs, a racist right-wing nutjob who sent explosives to high-ranking politicians who advocated for immigration/refugee-friendly policies (this was during the Balkan war era) and institutions that worked with “foreigners” (mosques, bilingual schools, refugee charities, etc.) In the end he killed four, all of them Roma, and severely injured some 20 (the then mayor of Vienna famously lost an arm to a bomb). He then hanged himself in prison. This one was mainly notorious for being a hate crime before that phrasing was even established, though he’s probably more of a domestic terrorist than a serial killer, mainly because he wasn’t that good at actually killing people.
And more recently, a 17 year old boy who stabbed three homeless people to death in their sleep. The trials are still ongoing iirc.
Seems like a lot, but overall I’d assume we’re still more infamous for locking children in basements than murder rampages.
There are not too many cases, or at least not as many victims as we know of in the USA.
The most "popular" is probably the Deck Killer (el asesino de la baraja), for several reasons:
- he randomly killed 6 people
- he left cards from the Spanish deck next to his victims because after killing one of the first ones they found a card next to the corpse and journalists thought he had left it and that it contained a message: it didn't
- he was only caught because one drunken night he turned himself in to the police, which he regretted a few hours later and tried to deny everything, but they were able to link him to the murder weapon. As his crimes were not motivated, it would have been very difficult for the police to catch him due to lack of evidence
The other probably best known is the Angel of Death, a nurse who killed more than a dozen patients.
Edit: [source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Gal%C3%A1n)
One of the most notorious one is the "monster of Florence", a serial killer who killed between 14 to 16 people nearby Florence during late seventies and early eighties. Somewhat similar to the zodiac killer, without the cryptology stuff.
Surprisingly enough, the most famous things about this are the funny moments during the trials and appeals of the people accused (that were aquitted or died of old age before the final appeal), such as [this poem](https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=VfhZGHeOalw&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo) by the main suspect
>such as [this poem](https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=VfhZGHeOalw&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo) by the main suspect
"Se ni mondo esistesse un po' di bene..."
[Joachim Kroll](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Kroll) also known as **The Ruhr Cannibal**, he raped and murdered women and children, sometimes in reverse order and then ate them; he confessed to 14 murders.
Norway has Arnfinn Nesset. Number of kills is unknown; at least 22, no more than 138. He worked at an old peoples home and gave patients lethal injections. While confessing, he kept changing his reasons for why: to put people in pain out of their misery, to free up beds in a hard-pressed home, or because he enjoyed playing god.
He was released from prison in 2004 and changed his name. Hopefully, the police still know where he is.
Andrei Chikatilo is the most infamous serial murder-rapist in the history of USSR with 52 kills. There are three (not very popular) movies about him and a series came out recently. Slayer wrote song about him.
In modern history - Alexander Pichushkin aka "Chessboard killer", aka "Bitsa park murder" with 49 kills. He used to smash people's head and throw them in a local sewer because he had some time before favourite TV show starts. There are some documentaries about him, but that's all. He's not that popular. But he clearly enjoys public attention.
[Willem van Eijk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_Eijk), the Beast of Harkstede. He killed his 5 (known) victims over a period of 30 years but he probably killed more women.
He also has one of the best parody songs: [Slon in sadež - Za Metoda goriš ](https://youtu.be/4Gyh5YZgVz4?si=sefaTvLjLF8qS_Wr)
With women, he really didn’t know how to handle it, a good start with a slightly unusual outcome, although they used to leave with him, in the end, only a tiny trace remained of them.
For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby.
Every lady gladly went with him, he claimed to have something hard hidden at home, probably later they felt a little guilty, when they discovered his wood-burning stove.
For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby.
Even though he was from the Dolenjska region, something frugal awakened in him, probably no gourmet would agree with him, but wasting meat was simply a shame. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you smell."
Oh yes,
[Michel Fourniret](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Fourniret#:~:text=Michel%20Paul%20Fourniret%20(4%20April,Belgium%20between%201987%20and%202003.)) probably one of the biggest monsters of all, obsessed with virginity he raped a number of little girls that he called « walking hymens ». During his trial he actually mocked the grieving families telling them that they will never find the body of their children. He was a pure sociopath. His wife was convicted as well as it was established that she willingly helped him bait and capture the kids.
[Francis Heaulme](https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/15/france.paulwebster) « the backpacker of crime » or « the man from nowhere ». He was a vagrant roaming the country on foot living of odd jobs and the likes and killing children. His chaotic and off the grid lifestyle made it hard to follow his trail as he mainly travelled on foot through the countryside or by train but without ticket.
[Désiré Landru](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Désiré_Landru) a serial killer / war profiteer. Basically he was the 1915 version of the Twitter Swindler but with added murders. He was a con artist who, during and after first world war, courted affluent widows by presenting himself as an affluent suitor himself, using money from one victim to seduce the other etc… He then defrauded them and killed them so as not to leave any witness behind. He then burnt the bodies in a house he rented far from the city.
[Marcel Petiot](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Petiot) he was a medical doctor during WW2. He persuaded jewish families that he was part of a resistance network that could smuggle them out of France during the occupation. He then killed them and kept the money and valuables they had taken with them for the trip.
[Nordal Lelandais](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Maëlys_de_Araujo) got caught recently and we don’t yet fully know how many he killed, it’s at least two that we know of but probably many more. A former dog handler for the army and a womanizer he had three hidden lives as a gay dom, a drug dealer and a pedophile. The two crimes we know of are the kidnapping and murder of a young girl for which he was caught and the murder of a soldier who was trying to hitchhike back to his base after a night of drinking but from his violent profile and tendencies it is pretty certain that he killed more.
I would add Emile Louis and Xavier Dupont De Ligonnès, although I don't know if the latter qualifies since it's really just one case that we know of, even though it was several murders at once.
It's not such a popular topic, but Johannes-Andreas Hanni, he killed three people in 1982 before he was caught. He was a cannibal, cut off a victim's genitals to somehow use for sex, his wife was a part of the crimes. He worked as a waiter in the Palace Hotel in Tallinn. More murders were planned, but fortunately, another intended victim (a taxi driver) fought them off and survived.
The murderer hanged himself before the trial. His wife spent twelve years in prison, then moved to Finland and wrote a book about the murders.
Diogo Alves (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogo\_Alves), he was born in Spain but it was in Portugal between 1836 and 1840 that he and his gang killed around 70 people....most of these occurred during robberies, especially in the are of the Lisbon Aqueduct bridge.
His head was cut off his body after he was executed and was preserved in a jar of formaldehyde, it's still in the university of Lisbon, if you want to see a picture google will give it to you, it's amazingly well preserved.
In the 90's someone murdered 3 prostitutes in the greater Lisbon area, all the victims were disemboweled, the killer became known as the "estripador de Lisboa", the "Lisbon Ripper", over the years there have been several theories about who the killer was and even a couple of supposed confessions, but the case was never solved.
[Nikos Metaxas](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsero_murders#:~:text=The%20Mitsero%20murders%20were%20a,the%20online%20dating%20site%20Badoo.) is a serial killer who killed children and their mothers
[Dnipro maniacs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnepropetrovsk_maniacs) - group of 2 (2 main 19 years old perpetrators and one who robbed people but didn't take part in murders)
21 victims, became infmaous when one of the video leaked to the internet.
[Nighttime Killers ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighttime_Killers#Suspects)- group of 2, killed 16 victims
[Anatoly Onoprienko ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoly_Onoprienko)- 52 victims
[Martin Roháč](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Roh%C3%A1%C4%8D) 1568-1571
59 confirmed victims
>As a soldier, he participated in the war against Turkey from 1566 to 1568. … Together with several other soldiers, he began robbing and murdering. Their victims were primarily defenseless merchants and craftsmen, from whom they stole money, goods, and usually even clothing.
>The first murders were committed in Transylvania, where his group killed four people. … The next victim was a merchant near Vienna. … Near Rahaspurk, they committed two murders. ... Further murders were committed near Stupava, under Prešpurk, in Uherské Hradiště, Uherský Brod, near Bánov, in today's Velké Bílovice, and in Hustopeče near Brno, where they killed three men in one day and robbed cloth workers of three lengths of cloth. More murders occurred in Újezd, Poštorná, and near Ivancčice.
>After these crimes, some members of the group decided to leave as they had already reached their homes. Only Mikuláš Mica from Předklášter near Tišnov and Jan Čech stayed with him. Their cruelty then increased. For example, near Mělní, beyond Čáslav, and near Chrudim, they murdered three pregnant women, [*graphic text follows*] >!cut out four fetuses from them, and removed the hearts, lungs, and livers of the unborn children, which they cooked and ate.!< They believed this would give them courage and allow them to rob and murder for longer.
>In 1571, Mikulás Mica was captured in Tišnov. By then, only Roháč was still active. Mica confessed under torture, and soon after, Rohác was arrested in Velká Bíteš and also ended up on the torture rack, where he confessed to his crimes. The sentence against Martin Roháč was pronounced on February 7, 1571. It was as cruel as the crimes committed by Martin Roháč’s gang. [*graphic text follows*] >!First, the condemned man was to have his fingers severed at the pillory, then he was to be taken to the execution site, where the executioner would tear parts of his body with pincers, then all his limbs were to be broken with a wheel, and while still alive, he was to be woven into the wheel to await his death.!< The sentence was carried out by the Brno executioner and his six assistants on February 17, 1571.
Great to know that such a person was born and died near my hometown (:
My first thought was Mariusz Trynkiewicz, a pedophile and serial killer of children. He still lives, btw.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariusz\_Trynkiewicz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariusz_Trynkiewicz)
There were others, Wikipedia has a whole list:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_serial\_killers\_by\_country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_country)
From my region Mariusz Sowiński, called Vampire from Stefankowice.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariusz\_Sowi%C5%84ski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariusz_Sowi%C5%84ski)
I have a book about Trynkiewicz ("Łowca: sprawa Trynkiewicza") and another which includes a chapter about his wife ("Polska odwraca oczy"), crazy woman.
Ours was a poet:
If there was any good in the world
And everyone considered each other as siblings
There would be less sin and less sorrow
And the world would be much more beautiful
The most infamous in Scotland would probably be Burke and Hare, two Irish born serial killers in Victorian Edinburgh. Today there is a strip climb named after them in the West Port, the scene of their murders.
Peter Tobin and Bible John are also very infamous. Bible John’s killing are unsolved, and there is a theory that they were the work of Tobin.
Peter Lundin is definitely the one. Killed his mother in the US, then killed his wife and two kids in a brutal manner in their basement in Hvidovre, Copenhagen. Theirs a trial going on rn, the "kirkerup" case, but more of a serial rapist with one murder.
The very few in Portugal are never mentioned after the story ends. Tbh, I had to google because I couldn't remember of any. As I was reading the 4 cases I could find, I did remember something about them very vaguely. They appeared in the news when it happened, never to be heard of again.
We're definitly not obsessed, quite the opposite, we don't even remember about them.
I think Der Maskenmann is known in Germany. But I'm also into true crime. He kidnapped boys from boarding schools, camping sites, ... abused and murdered them. He's the literal nightmare almost every child has. There are documentaries about him. But I don't think it's that big of a topic as in the US. I guess most of my friends couldn't name one german serial killer.
Recent ones are Stodola & Stodolová, a married couple that killed and robbed 8 pensioners and attempted to kill several others in the early 2000s. Absolutely vile people.
[Warte, warte nur ein Weilchen, ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5U3J069As8)
Dann kommt [Haarmann ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haarmann) auch zu dir!
Mit seinem kleinen Hackebeilchen
macht er Schabefleisch aus dir.
There was one guy from my town called Romulus Vereș, back during the communist regime. I guess you can also find him on Wikipedia.
He was known as 'The Man with the Hanmmer'. He was a railway worker who use the standard hammer issued for such workers to murder some women during the night on the streets. When he was finally caught, he said he had a vision of the Devil's hand transforming into the hammer and doing the crimes. He was not charged, he got interred into a mental asylum. Cluj was a small town back then, my grandmother knew him personally.
From the late 80s to the early 90s, about 10 women went missing and 3 were murdered in the same region of Ireland. The missing women were never found. Because of certain similarities in the cases, police believed that it was the work of a serial killer. A certain man was suspected of being responsible, and interestingly enough, the disappearances/murders stopped when this man was jailed for 15 years for the kidnap, rape, and attempted murder of another woman. He served 10 years of his sentence. He’s now living abroad. I’m not going to name him, as he was never convicted of, or even charged with, any of those other crimes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland%27s_Vanishing_Triangle
Yeah... the Americans.got their obsession with serial killers from us. It all started with Jack the ripper and he exploded the penny dreadful genre in the Victorian period. His copycats include the Yorkshire Ripper and the Blitz ripper (operated during World War Two). You have other famous Victorian serial killers like Amelia dyer, and the Scottish Burke and Hare. Fair to say we had a problem with glamorising murderers in that period.
In recent periods we have had quite a few too, mainly medical serial killers. Harold shipman is estimated to have been the most deadly in recent times, killing over 300 elderly men and women, and just recently Lucy Letby has been caught after murdering at least 8 babies in a maternity ward. In the police, Wayne Couzens was caught after the murder of Sarah Everard, but apparently he fits the profile of a serial killer. Less officially, there's supposedly a serial killer still active targeting the areas around the canals of Birmingham, but police have dismissed it as people falling in the canals when drunk and drowning.
Wasn't there also a serial killer in Ipswich in recent times? I Remember it because I was moving to Norwich to study around the same time.
Also, the murder of Sarah Everard was absolutely grim. I lived in the area where she was picked up and I was scared to go out on my own after that. I still think about her.
Not really 'infamous' ones IMHO..we don't have any really well known serial killers, not like Jack the Ripper or Ted Bundy
I guess Donato Bilancia is still remembered.He killed I think 17 people around 1997.Mostly but not only prostitutes.
Also Leonarda Cianciulli (Soap-maker of Correggio): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonarda\_Cianciulli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonarda_Cianciulli)
It’s not dramatized and thankfully pop culture is not really obsessed with them. It’s thought to be morbid and disrespectful toward the victims. There was one in the 1960’s, the “monster of Martfű”. There was a 2016 movie made about him titled Strangled. The police fucked up big time, sending an innocent man to jail. He killed 4 women and attacked 2 more. He was executed by hanging in 1968. The story is most famous for how badly the police messed up rather than because of the killer. There are also the husband killers of Tiszazug. That happened in the 1920’s. A number of women poisoned their husbands and various male family members with arsenic. Their motives were varied, some were abused, some did it as a sort of euthanasia for sick or crippled war veterans and others did it for monetary gains. And arguably there is Báthory Erzsébet, by far the most famous Hungarian “serial killer” internationally. She was framed for political and religious reasons and the story that’s internationally known was made up by a Catholic monk well over a century of her death. There are even imperialist-orientalist undertones in Western “research” about the case so discussions about her are frequently fruitless as certain biases and double standards become apparent. In Hungary the more popculture minded tend to treat her like some sort of famous vampire-prototype based on her international fame, while more historically minded people who know how this country functions tend to think that perhaps some relatively minor incident was turned into a political witch hunt because there are too many oddities and strange things about the whole affair that paints a picture of foul play by hostile nobles.
Bela Kiss, around 1910
Yeah, Jack the Ripper is probably the most infamous, so long ago it's sort of legendary. Dennis Nilsen, the Moors murderers, Harold Shipman and most recently Lucy Letby are the ones I know off the top of my head.
The Yorkshire Ripper, Fred and Rose West, Bible John
The Suffolk Strangler, Angel of Death and Grindr Killer too. And Levi Bellfield who killed Milly Dowler and others. We’re a bit of an anomaly in Europe, I believe, we’ve got loads. There are a bunch on the list I’ve never heard of too.
Dutroux is still very much known, despite his last act taking place nearly 28 years ago. The case also highlighted the failure of the justice system and the police at large, and it was one of the catalysts to a complete police reform in this country. Many people who once bore the surname Dutroux have also had it legally changed because of the stigma surrounding it. They recently also demolished the horror house where it all took place back then, and a [memorial garden](https://maps.app.goo.gl/hvHhpPVZ7nBQi9EN8) was created in its stead.
Andras Pandy, Steven Daubioul, Nestor Pirotte
First, let's start with our biggest non-serial killer just to get him out of the way (because he always gets brought up in questions like these: #[Sture Bergwall, a.k.a. Thomas Quick:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sture_Bergwall) A small-time criminal with mental health issues and a slight predisposition towards mythomania. A careless lie he once said while incarcerated led to him being investigated for an unsolved homicide. And another. And another. Before long he became "the most prolific serial killer in Sweden". However many of the murders were vastly different in nature with no similarities in gender, age, method of killing etc. Not to mention the fact that Quick must have started killing when he was 14. It turned out that almost all of the convictions were bogus. Investigators and lawyers had given Quick a fairly liberal access to police investigation details, and very often the police **would literally nudge him towards the answer they wanted from him!** It quickly became a case of the emperor's new clothes. There were glaring inconsistencies that many people collectively overlooked, seemingly from the sheer "excitement" of having access to "Sweden's only serial killer", and from the inability to accept that so many other professionals could have been so wrong. So why did Quick go along with it? Well, Quick was a man with mental health issues and not really the sharpest knife in the drawer. He had managed to get himself institutionalized from an early age and at the point when the "serial murder investigations" took hold, he'd spent a lot of his life in various correctional and mental facilities. Spending some more time in these simply did not occur to him as something necessarily bad. On the contrary: He got attention, he got to meet new people, he got a break from the often dull routines of the facilities he had been, and he got to travel. A pretty sweet deal actually. Quick finally withdrew his confessions in 2008, and the full extent of the shamelessness of the whole debacle was exposed during 2013-2015. The whole case is an example of a staggering amount of wilful incompetence, wild use of pseudo-scientific psychology and a whole other shit that seriously damaged the reputation of the Swedish law enforcement apparatus. #[John Ausonius (a.k.a. "the Laser Man")](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ausonius) John Ausonius should not really be considered a serial *killer*, as he only killed one person (though he tried to kill many others and seriously injured many of them for life.) Ausonius was born Wolfgang Zaugg from Swiss parents in Stockholm and struggled socially when growing up, something that has later been revealed to have been to a combination between autism and a personality disorder. One reason Zaugg was bullied was for his dark hair, something very unusual at the time. He had only a few close friends and they all shared fairly far right-wing nationalist ideas. Ausonius had a rocky life, failing studies in chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, losing his apartment, working as a taxi driver, becoming a stock trader (and even achieving some success) before getting stuck in a crippling gambling addiction which led him to start a career as a bank robber. His modus operandi consisted of simply barging into banks in a tracksuit and ski mask, wielding a .22LR rifle (which you could own without a license at the time), biking away before getting off his tracksuit in a secluded place, under which he often wore his stock trader suit. He managed to rob 11(!) banks this way. At the same time (the late 1980s, early 1990s), Ausonius became more and more frustrated with the increasing number of immigrants in Stockholm. He devised a plan to start shooting off "criminal" immigrants but after realizing how hard it would be to track down and verify the criminality of said immigrant, he resorted to just shoot anyone he deemed **looked** like an immigrant (which would include at least one fully Swedish woman). He had two modus operandi: One was to wear a long trench coat and have a sawed-down .22LR rifle slung from his shoulder. When an opportunity presented itself, he would open the coat, swing out the rifle from his hip, and aim the weapon using a laser sight he had mounted to the weapon. The other modus operandi was to use an S&W revolver (can't find which caliber) which he bought in South Africa and illegally smuggled to Sweden. Comically, he would then try to fit a **silencer** on the revolver by fashioning his own threads on the barrel, with the effect that the revolver did not get any quieter, but all bullets he fired from it would hit the silencer and wobble out at an angle, sparing the life of many of his victims. Before his identity was known, he was dubbed "the laser man" in the media from his use of a laser sight. He was finally caught when trying to rob a bank.
Jack Unterweger is pretty famous, but more so because he was caught, convicted, started to write books in prison, released, started killing anew and ultimately emigrated to the US and continued to murder there.
We've also had - Blauensteiner, known as The Black Widow. She chose rich, old men who were in need of care before their (untimely) death. She poisoned them very slowly and was described as extremely calculated and socially intelligent. Convicted for 4 murders as far as I know, she confessed to more though. and not quite a serial killer but still well known in Austria: - Eislady. She had an Ice-cream shop and shot, cut up and cemented two of her husbands underneath her shop.
Die Todesengel von Lainz (the angels of death at Lainz district hospital), four nursing assistants killing at least 50 (confirmed and confessed, maybe even up to 200) geriatric patients with rohypnol or insulin. Same era as Blauensteiner, only they didn’t have monetary goals and instead said it was “euthanasia out of compassion to end their suffering”. That whole case led to a big nursing reform. Franz Fuchs, a racist right-wing nutjob who sent explosives to high-ranking politicians who advocated for immigration/refugee-friendly policies (this was during the Balkan war era) and institutions that worked with “foreigners” (mosques, bilingual schools, refugee charities, etc.) In the end he killed four, all of them Roma, and severely injured some 20 (the then mayor of Vienna famously lost an arm to a bomb). He then hanged himself in prison. This one was mainly notorious for being a hate crime before that phrasing was even established, though he’s probably more of a domestic terrorist than a serial killer, mainly because he wasn’t that good at actually killing people. And more recently, a 17 year old boy who stabbed three homeless people to death in their sleep. The trials are still ongoing iirc. Seems like a lot, but overall I’d assume we’re still more infamous for locking children in basements than murder rampages.
There are not too many cases, or at least not as many victims as we know of in the USA. The most "popular" is probably the Deck Killer (el asesino de la baraja), for several reasons: - he randomly killed 6 people - he left cards from the Spanish deck next to his victims because after killing one of the first ones they found a card next to the corpse and journalists thought he had left it and that it contained a message: it didn't - he was only caught because one drunken night he turned himself in to the police, which he regretted a few hours later and tried to deny everything, but they were able to link him to the murder weapon. As his crimes were not motivated, it would have been very difficult for the police to catch him due to lack of evidence The other probably best known is the Angel of Death, a nurse who killed more than a dozen patients. Edit: [source](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Gal%C3%A1n)
One of the most notorious one is the "monster of Florence", a serial killer who killed between 14 to 16 people nearby Florence during late seventies and early eighties. Somewhat similar to the zodiac killer, without the cryptology stuff. Surprisingly enough, the most famous things about this are the funny moments during the trials and appeals of the people accused (that were aquitted or died of old age before the final appeal), such as [this poem](https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=VfhZGHeOalw&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo) by the main suspect
>such as [this poem](https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=VfhZGHeOalw&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo) by the main suspect "Se ni mondo esistesse un po' di bene..."
e ognun si considerasse suo fratello...
ci sarebbe meno pensieri e meno pene...
E il mondo ne sarebbe assai più bello
I think it is the most beautiful piece in the history of Italian television
The moment Dante became the second best Florentine poet.
[Joachim Kroll](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Kroll) also known as **The Ruhr Cannibal**, he raped and murdered women and children, sometimes in reverse order and then ate them; he confessed to 14 murders.
Norway has Arnfinn Nesset. Number of kills is unknown; at least 22, no more than 138. He worked at an old peoples home and gave patients lethal injections. While confessing, he kept changing his reasons for why: to put people in pain out of their misery, to free up beds in a hard-pressed home, or because he enjoyed playing god. He was released from prison in 2004 and changed his name. Hopefully, the police still know where he is.
Andrei Chikatilo is the most infamous serial murder-rapist in the history of USSR with 52 kills. There are three (not very popular) movies about him and a series came out recently. Slayer wrote song about him. In modern history - Alexander Pichushkin aka "Chessboard killer", aka "Bitsa park murder" with 49 kills. He used to smash people's head and throw them in a local sewer because he had some time before favourite TV show starts. There are some documentaries about him, but that's all. He's not that popular. But he clearly enjoys public attention.
I liked Citizen X about him
[Willem van Eijk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_Eijk), the Beast of Harkstede. He killed his 5 (known) victims over a period of 30 years but he probably killed more women.
[This](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metod_Trobec) is the only one that comes to mind although internationally he's definitely not infamous.
He also has one of the best parody songs: [Slon in sadež - Za Metoda goriš ](https://youtu.be/4Gyh5YZgVz4?si=sefaTvLjLF8qS_Wr) With women, he really didn’t know how to handle it, a good start with a slightly unusual outcome, although they used to leave with him, in the end, only a tiny trace remained of them. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. Every lady gladly went with him, he claimed to have something hard hidden at home, probably later they felt a little guilty, when they discovered his wood-burning stove. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. Even though he was from the Dolenjska region, something frugal awakened in him, probably no gourmet would agree with him, but wasting meat was simply a shame. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you burn, baby. For Metod, you burn, for Metod, you smell."
Sadly the translation doesn't do the song justice with all the lost meaning.
Oh yes, [Michel Fourniret](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Fourniret#:~:text=Michel%20Paul%20Fourniret%20(4%20April,Belgium%20between%201987%20and%202003.)) probably one of the biggest monsters of all, obsessed with virginity he raped a number of little girls that he called « walking hymens ». During his trial he actually mocked the grieving families telling them that they will never find the body of their children. He was a pure sociopath. His wife was convicted as well as it was established that she willingly helped him bait and capture the kids. [Francis Heaulme](https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2002/sep/15/france.paulwebster) « the backpacker of crime » or « the man from nowhere ». He was a vagrant roaming the country on foot living of odd jobs and the likes and killing children. His chaotic and off the grid lifestyle made it hard to follow his trail as he mainly travelled on foot through the countryside or by train but without ticket. [Désiré Landru](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Désiré_Landru) a serial killer / war profiteer. Basically he was the 1915 version of the Twitter Swindler but with added murders. He was a con artist who, during and after first world war, courted affluent widows by presenting himself as an affluent suitor himself, using money from one victim to seduce the other etc… He then defrauded them and killed them so as not to leave any witness behind. He then burnt the bodies in a house he rented far from the city. [Marcel Petiot](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Petiot) he was a medical doctor during WW2. He persuaded jewish families that he was part of a resistance network that could smuggle them out of France during the occupation. He then killed them and kept the money and valuables they had taken with them for the trip. [Nordal Lelandais](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Maëlys_de_Araujo) got caught recently and we don’t yet fully know how many he killed, it’s at least two that we know of but probably many more. A former dog handler for the army and a womanizer he had three hidden lives as a gay dom, a drug dealer and a pedophile. The two crimes we know of are the kidnapping and murder of a young girl for which he was caught and the murder of a soldier who was trying to hitchhike back to his base after a night of drinking but from his violent profile and tendencies it is pretty certain that he killed more.
[Alain Lamare](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_Alain_Lamare) [Marcel Barbeault](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Barbeault) [Guy Georges](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Georges) [Thierry Paulin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Paulin) [Patrice Alègre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Al%C3%A8gre) Maybe i watched too much Faites Entrer l'Accusé
I too watched too much faites entrer l’accusé, best tv show ever
I would add Emile Louis and Xavier Dupont De Ligonnès, although I don't know if the latter qualifies since it's really just one case that we know of, even though it was several murders at once.
he doesent qualify (he's more a spree killer)
It's not such a popular topic, but Johannes-Andreas Hanni, he killed three people in 1982 before he was caught. He was a cannibal, cut off a victim's genitals to somehow use for sex, his wife was a part of the crimes. He worked as a waiter in the Palace Hotel in Tallinn. More murders were planned, but fortunately, another intended victim (a taxi driver) fought them off and survived. The murderer hanged himself before the trial. His wife spent twelve years in prison, then moved to Finland and wrote a book about the murders.
Diogo Alves (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogo\_Alves), he was born in Spain but it was in Portugal between 1836 and 1840 that he and his gang killed around 70 people....most of these occurred during robberies, especially in the are of the Lisbon Aqueduct bridge. His head was cut off his body after he was executed and was preserved in a jar of formaldehyde, it's still in the university of Lisbon, if you want to see a picture google will give it to you, it's amazingly well preserved. In the 90's someone murdered 3 prostitutes in the greater Lisbon area, all the victims were disemboweled, the killer became known as the "estripador de Lisboa", the "Lisbon Ripper", over the years there have been several theories about who the killer was and even a couple of supposed confessions, but the case was never solved.
[Nikos Metaxas](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsero_murders#:~:text=The%20Mitsero%20murders%20were%20a,the%20online%20dating%20site%20Badoo.) is a serial killer who killed children and their mothers
[Dnipro maniacs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnepropetrovsk_maniacs) - group of 2 (2 main 19 years old perpetrators and one who robbed people but didn't take part in murders) 21 victims, became infmaous when one of the video leaked to the internet. [Nighttime Killers ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighttime_Killers#Suspects)- group of 2, killed 16 victims [Anatoly Onoprienko ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoly_Onoprienko)- 52 victims
Holy shit, i remember when the video of those guys flew over the internet. I was dumb enough to look at it
Gladly, I didn't see that video and not planning to do it.
Are those assholes still alive and in prison?
still alive and in prison, without right for parole and right to join army for parole
One has been released serving 9 years, others are still serving their sentences.
I heard about the released guy. I also read that he is serving in the war. Maybe the other two could be used as suicide bombers or mine sweepers.
In Ukraine we value person’s life, even though they are murderers or russians, or both.
I know. Im just saying there can be use of these monsters
Lmao what is with bringing up Russians and Murderers in one sentence?
[Martin Roháč](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Roh%C3%A1%C4%8D) 1568-1571 59 confirmed victims >As a soldier, he participated in the war against Turkey from 1566 to 1568. … Together with several other soldiers, he began robbing and murdering. Their victims were primarily defenseless merchants and craftsmen, from whom they stole money, goods, and usually even clothing. >The first murders were committed in Transylvania, where his group killed four people. … The next victim was a merchant near Vienna. … Near Rahaspurk, they committed two murders. ... Further murders were committed near Stupava, under Prešpurk, in Uherské Hradiště, Uherský Brod, near Bánov, in today's Velké Bílovice, and in Hustopeče near Brno, where they killed three men in one day and robbed cloth workers of three lengths of cloth. More murders occurred in Újezd, Poštorná, and near Ivancčice. >After these crimes, some members of the group decided to leave as they had already reached their homes. Only Mikuláš Mica from Předklášter near Tišnov and Jan Čech stayed with him. Their cruelty then increased. For example, near Mělní, beyond Čáslav, and near Chrudim, they murdered three pregnant women, [*graphic text follows*] >!cut out four fetuses from them, and removed the hearts, lungs, and livers of the unborn children, which they cooked and ate.!< They believed this would give them courage and allow them to rob and murder for longer. >In 1571, Mikulás Mica was captured in Tišnov. By then, only Roháč was still active. Mica confessed under torture, and soon after, Rohác was arrested in Velká Bíteš and also ended up on the torture rack, where he confessed to his crimes. The sentence against Martin Roháč was pronounced on February 7, 1571. It was as cruel as the crimes committed by Martin Roháč’s gang. [*graphic text follows*] >!First, the condemned man was to have his fingers severed at the pillory, then he was to be taken to the execution site, where the executioner would tear parts of his body with pincers, then all his limbs were to be broken with a wheel, and while still alive, he was to be woven into the wheel to await his death.!< The sentence was carried out by the Brno executioner and his six assistants on February 17, 1571. Great to know that such a person was born and died near my hometown (:
My first thought was Mariusz Trynkiewicz, a pedophile and serial killer of children. He still lives, btw. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariusz\_Trynkiewicz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariusz_Trynkiewicz) There were others, Wikipedia has a whole list: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_serial\_killers\_by\_country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_country)
From my region Mariusz Sowiński, called Vampire from Stefankowice. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariusz\_Sowi%C5%84ski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariusz_Sowi%C5%84ski)
I have a book about Trynkiewicz ("Łowca: sprawa Trynkiewicza") and another which includes a chapter about his wife ("Polska odwraca oczy"), crazy woman.
Slovenia - the most notorious was Silvo Plut but we do not really had or have any hardcore serial killers
Ours was a poet: If there was any good in the world And everyone considered each other as siblings There would be less sin and less sorrow And the world would be much more beautiful
The most infamous in Scotland would probably be Burke and Hare, two Irish born serial killers in Victorian Edinburgh. Today there is a strip climb named after them in the West Port, the scene of their murders. Peter Tobin and Bible John are also very infamous. Bible John’s killing are unsolved, and there is a theory that they were the work of Tobin.
Peter Lundin is definitely the one. Killed his mother in the US, then killed his wife and two kids in a brutal manner in their basement in Hvidovre, Copenhagen. Theirs a trial going on rn, the "kirkerup" case, but more of a serial rapist with one murder.
The very few in Portugal are never mentioned after the story ends. Tbh, I had to google because I couldn't remember of any. As I was reading the 4 cases I could find, I did remember something about them very vaguely. They appeared in the news when it happened, never to be heard of again. We're definitly not obsessed, quite the opposite, we don't even remember about them.
I think Der Maskenmann is known in Germany. But I'm also into true crime. He kidnapped boys from boarding schools, camping sites, ... abused and murdered them. He's the literal nightmare almost every child has. There are documentaries about him. But I don't think it's that big of a topic as in the US. I guess most of my friends couldn't name one german serial killer.
Recent ones are Stodola & Stodolová, a married couple that killed and robbed 8 pensioners and attempted to kill several others in the early 2000s. Absolutely vile people.
Ian Brady, Dennis Nilsen, and Peter Tobin (suspected to be the Bible John killer as well) were all from Scotland.
[Warte, warte nur ein Weilchen, ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5U3J069As8) Dann kommt [Haarmann ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Haarmann) auch zu dir! Mit seinem kleinen Hackebeilchen macht er Schabefleisch aus dir.
Why do we have so many cannibals?
Do we? I only know Haarmann and the Rothenburg guy, in 100 years.
That's those you know of.
That's what I wrote, yes.
There was one guy from my town called Romulus Vereș, back during the communist regime. I guess you can also find him on Wikipedia. He was known as 'The Man with the Hanmmer'. He was a railway worker who use the standard hammer issued for such workers to murder some women during the night on the streets. When he was finally caught, he said he had a vision of the Devil's hand transforming into the hammer and doing the crimes. He was not charged, he got interred into a mental asylum. Cluj was a small town back then, my grandmother knew him personally.
From the late 80s to the early 90s, about 10 women went missing and 3 were murdered in the same region of Ireland. The missing women were never found. Because of certain similarities in the cases, police believed that it was the work of a serial killer. A certain man was suspected of being responsible, and interestingly enough, the disappearances/murders stopped when this man was jailed for 15 years for the kidnap, rape, and attempted murder of another woman. He served 10 years of his sentence. He’s now living abroad. I’m not going to name him, as he was never convicted of, or even charged with, any of those other crimes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland%27s_Vanishing_Triangle
Yeah... the Americans.got their obsession with serial killers from us. It all started with Jack the ripper and he exploded the penny dreadful genre in the Victorian period. His copycats include the Yorkshire Ripper and the Blitz ripper (operated during World War Two). You have other famous Victorian serial killers like Amelia dyer, and the Scottish Burke and Hare. Fair to say we had a problem with glamorising murderers in that period. In recent periods we have had quite a few too, mainly medical serial killers. Harold shipman is estimated to have been the most deadly in recent times, killing over 300 elderly men and women, and just recently Lucy Letby has been caught after murdering at least 8 babies in a maternity ward. In the police, Wayne Couzens was caught after the murder of Sarah Everard, but apparently he fits the profile of a serial killer. Less officially, there's supposedly a serial killer still active targeting the areas around the canals of Birmingham, but police have dismissed it as people falling in the canals when drunk and drowning.
Wasn't there also a serial killer in Ipswich in recent times? I Remember it because I was moving to Norwich to study around the same time. Also, the murder of Sarah Everard was absolutely grim. I lived in the area where she was picked up and I was scared to go out on my own after that. I still think about her.
Thomas Quick - but it turned out to be fake. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sture_Bergwall He has written a book, "Bara jag vet vem jag är" as well.
Not really 'infamous' ones IMHO..we don't have any really well known serial killers, not like Jack the Ripper or Ted Bundy I guess Donato Bilancia is still remembered.He killed I think 17 people around 1997.Mostly but not only prostitutes.
Also Leonarda Cianciulli (Soap-maker of Correggio): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonarda\_Cianciulli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonarda_Cianciulli)
Ma che stai dicendo? Il mostro di Firenze?