Top 20 most famous serial killers in the world and their zodiac signs

Top 20 most famous serial killers in the world and their zodiac signs

Serial killers are known for their heinous acts of killing two or more people knowingly and willingly. Some kill for rituals and others for their selfish gains. Since time immemorial, they have been in existence, and some have died following their gruesome acts. The following list explores the top 20 most famous serial killers in the world and their zodiac signs.

famous serial killers
Famous serial killers still alive and those who died. Photo: @BTYK
Source: Instagram

Many of the famous serial killers in the world have come and gone, but some have forged a much more profound legacy than others. Most of them have been remembered for their extreme body count, others for their strange perversions and indescribable qualities that make them killers. Below is the list of famous serial killers and their zodiac signs.

Top 20 famous serial killers list

The list below contains famous serial killers still alive and those who died. The grouping is done according to the complex nature of their actions and the extent they went in the killing. See the list below!

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1. Ted Bundy: Sagittarius

famous serial killers
His target mainly was college-age women, from Washington and Oregon to Utah and Colorado. Photo: @Ted
Source: Instagram

Who is the most famous serial killer in 2021? This charming, handsome young deviant was a lady killer in more ways than one, better known as The Lady Killer. His target mainly was college-age women, from Washington and Oregon to Utah and Colorado. He gained attention when he acted as his lawyer during what is believed to have been the first televised murder trial. He was eventually executed by electric chair in 1989.

2. Jack the Ripper: Gemini

famous serial killers
He mocked the community and the police by sending letters outlining the acts. Photo: @Jack
Source: Instagram

Jack the Ripper is the seductive tale of England's most famous serial killer that still captures the imagination even 130 years on. The killer appeared in London's Whitechapel district in 1888 and murdered five women, all prostitutes, and mutilated their corpses. In addition, the killer mocked the community and the police by sending letters outlining the acts.

3. Ed Gein: Virgo

famous serial killers
Gein had an abusive childhood. Photo: @Ed
Source: Instagram

Gein had an abusive childhood, and his alcoholic father and psychotic mother were not the best role models. His family eventually died, and he was left alone. At the age of 40, Gein began paying visits to local cemeteries, where he would unearth the bodies of recently-deceased women, steal them and fashion them into various household items.

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4. John Wayne Gacy: Pisces

famous serial killers
By day, he was a successful businessman. Photo: @Wayne
Source: Instagram

Gacy's murder spree began in 1972 when he murdered a 16-year-old Timothy McCoy. After the murder, he claimed to experience an orgasm, and from that point on, he chased that same feeling with 32 more victims. By day, he was a successful businessman, community worker and children's entertainer. But by night, he was a sadistic and rapist who ran an unlicensed cemetery beneath his house.

5. Jeffrey Dahmer: Gemini

famous serial killers
He was sentenced to 15 terms of life imprisonment in 1992. Photo: @Jeff
Source: Instagram

Who is the hottest serial killer? Dahmer started killing in 1978, just 18 years old. He was not arrested for murder until 1991, after a would-be victim escaped and led police back to Dahmer's Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dahmer also indulged in necrophilia and cooking body parts of his victims. He was sentenced to 15 terms of life imprisonment in 1992. He was beaten to death by a fellow prisoner at the Columbia Correctional Institution two years later.

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6. Aileen Wuornos: Pisces

famous serial killers
Wuornos was an abused child. Photo: @Aileen
Source: Instagram

Wuornos was an abused child. She became a sex worker who suddenly upped her game when she started murdering her clients. Then, during 1989 and 1990, she went on a brutal killing spree that cemented her status as America's most heinous female serial killer.

7. Harold Shipman: Capricorn

famous serial killers
He committed suicide while in prison in 2004. Photo: @Harold
Source: Instagram

Who is the #1 serial killer in the world? The most prolific modern serial killer is Dr Harold Shipman, with 218 probable murders and possibly 250. Harold began his murderous spree in 1972. He was finally convicted in 2000 and committed suicide while in prison in 2004.

8. Dennis Rader: Pisces

famous serial killers
Rader began taunting police with confession letters. Photo: @Den
Source: Instagram

He was a loving husband, father and company man, but he moonlighted as the elusive BTK killer, killing entire families and taunting police with mutilated Barbie dolls. He began in 1974, where he invaded a family home and strangled both parents and two kids. Similar murders followed, and Rader began taunting police with confession letters.

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9. The Zodiac Killer: Pisces

famous serial killers
He claimed to have killed 37 victims. Photo: @Zodiac
Source: Instagram

The killer operated in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He stabbed and shot couples in dark lovers' lanes, taunted police, and threatened to detonate a school bus full of children. He claimed to have killed 37 victims, but the newspapers confirmed only 7. The case file is still open.

10. The Brooklyn Vampire: Taurus

famous serial killers
He ate three children and claimed he murdered a hundred more. Photo: @Albert
Source: Instagram

Albert Fish was a serial killer that was active in the early 1900s. He was prosecuted on charges of rape, murder, and cannibalism. He ate three children and claimed he murdered a hundred more. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac, and The Boogey Man.

11. Pedro Alonso López: Libra

famous serial killers
Convicted of murdering 110 girls in Ecuador. Photo: @Pedro
Source: Instagram

Also known as Monster Of The Andes, he claims to have raped and murdered more than 300 women during his killing sprees along with Southern America. More than 50 of his victims were no older than twelve years old. He was later convicted of murdering 110 girls in Ecuador and confessed to 240 more murders in Colombia and Peru.

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12. Richard Ramirez: Pisces

famous serial killers
He was notorious for breaking into people's homes. Photo: @Ramirez
Source: Instagram

Ramirez, dubbed the Valley Intruder and the Night Stalker, was an American serial killer, serial rapist, kidnapper, child abuser, and burglar convicted in 1989. He was notorious for breaking into people's homes in Los Angeles and murdering them with various weapons, including handguns, knives, and even a tire iron.

13. Belle Sorenson Gunness: Scorpio

famous serial killers
Many speculate she framed her death and escaped. Photo: @Belle
Source: Instagram

Belle Gunness, born Brynhild Paulsdatter, was a Norwegian-American serial killer active in Illinois and Indiana between 1884 and 1908. Belle killed several of her boyfriends, husbands, and even children because of life insurance money. Although the authorities found her body in the fire remains in her family farmhouse, many speculate she framed her death and escaped.

14. Gary Ridgway: Aquarian

famous serial killers
He was arrested in 2001 and admitted to murdering at least 70 women. Photo: @Gary
Source: Instagram

Who is the sickest serial killer ever? Also known as the Green River Killer, he would throw his victim in the Green River. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders. However, he was arrested in 2001 and admitted to murdering at least 70 women during the 1980s and 1990s. Because he provided the authorities with the details of the murders and the locations of their bodies, he evaded the death penalty. Still, he was convicted of 49 murders and got life imprisonment.

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15. Tommy Lynn Sells: Cancer

famous serial killers
Authorities believe he committed a total of 22 murders. Photo: @Green
Source: Instagram

Sells was an American serial killer. He was convicted of one murder, for which he received the death penalty and was eventually executed. Authorities believe he committed a total of 22 murders. He was arrested after he broke into the room of a 10-year-old girl, stabbed her, and left her to die.

16. H.H. Holmes: Taurus

famous serial killers
The pharmacist turned a hotel into a torture castle. Photo: @HH
Source: Instagram

Chicago has had its share of killers, but perhaps none more haunting than H.H. Holmes, the pharmacist who turned a hotel into a torture castle. Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H. H. Holmes, was an American serial killer active from December 1891 to November 1894.

17. Ahmad Suradji: Capricorn

famous serial killers
He admitted to murdering 42 girls. Photo: @Ahmad
Source: Instagram

Also known as Nasib Kelewang and Datuk Maringgi, she was an Indonesian serial killer who admitted to murdering 42 girls and women between 1986 and 1997. Suradji's victims, ranging in age between 11 and 30, were strangled after being buried in the ground up to their waists as part of a ritual. Bodies were found in a sugarcane field with their heads facing his house, which he believed would give him more power. Suradji was sentenced to death by a firing squad in 2008.

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18. Luis Garavito: Aquarius

famous serial killers
He admitted to the rape, torture and murder of 138 boys and teenagers. Photo: @Luis
Source: Instagram

Cubillos, also known as La Bestia or Tribilín, is a Colombian pederast, rapist, necrophile, and serial killer. In 1999, he admitted to the rape, torture and murder 138 boys and teenagers. He was found guilty on 139 counts, which should amount to 1,853 years in prison. But Columbian law limits it to 30, which is what he was sentenced to in 1999.

19. Alexander Pichushkin: Pisces

famous serial killers
His targets were homeless men. Photo: @Pichu
Source: Instagram

Pichushkin, also known as The Chessboard Killer and The Bitsa Park Maniac, is a Russian serial killer. He is believed to have killed at least 49 people, and possibly as many as 60, between 1992 and 2006 in Southwest Moscow. His targets were homeless men whom he lured to his house with vodka.

20. Andrei Chikatilo: Libra

famous serial killers
Nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov. Photo: @Chikatilo
Source: Instagram

Chikatilo was a Soviet serial killer, nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov, the Red Ripper, and the Rostov Ripper, who sexually assaulted, murdered and mutilated at least fifty-two women and children between 1978 and 1990. After being captured in 1992, he was ordered to be killed by a firing squad in 1994.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Below are questions about serial killers. The questions are thoroughly researched to give correct info. See them below!

What is the most favourite last meal on death row?

Famous serial killers' last meals include fried chicken and chicken fried steak, which are popular southern dishes. However, ice cream and milkshakes topped the list. Almost every person, if they requested dessert, wanted some ice cream.

Who is the youngest serial killer?

Currently, Amardeep Sada holds the title of the youngest serial killer in the world. His first murder happened when he was only eight years old. Sada was released in 2016 upon his eighteenth birthday, but his whereabouts are unknown. He would now be 22 years old.

Above is a list of the top 20 famous serial killers in the world and their zodiac signs. The majority of them are already dead, and others are serving life imprisonment. You can watch movies about famous serial killers and get to know the kind of life they lived.

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READ ALSO: PICS: 10 prisons where the most dangerous criminals are held around the world

In other news, Briefly.co.za highlighted about 10 prisons where the most dangerous criminals are held worldwide. There are numerous prisons in the world, and all vary in terms of size and amenities provided.

Some prisons are designed to house the worst prisoners in the world to keep the community safe. Are you aware of some of the most dreaded convicts in the world? Read here to find out more!

Source: Briefly News

Authors:
Bennett Yates avatar

Bennett Yates (Lifestyle writer) Bennett Yates is a content creator with over five years of working experience in journalism and copywriting. He graduated from the University of Nairobi (2017) with a Bachelor's in Information Technology. In 2023, Bennett finished the AFP course on Digital Investigation Techniques. He started working for Briefly in 2019. You can reach him via email at bennetyates@gmail.com.