Top 15
This list is a compilation of fifteen modern serial killers currently with the highest verifiable murder count, non medical, and working alone.
| Name | Country | Years active | Proven victims | Possible victims | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luis Garavito | Colombia | 1990s | 0138 !138 | 0172 !172-400+ | Child-murderer, torture-killer, and rapist known as "La Bestia" ("The Beast"). Convicted of killing 138 victims but suspected of murdering over 400 victims, mostly street children. Sentenced to 1,853 years but could only be imprisoned for 30 which was reduced to 22 after aiding investigators. |
| Pedro Alonso López | Colombia, Peru, Ecuador | 1969 to 1980 | 0110 !110 | 0310 !310–350+ | Child-murderer and rapist, known as "The Monster of the Andes". Targeted young girls, between the ages of 8 and 12. Arrested in 1980 and convicted in 1983 of killing 110 young girls but confessed to killing 300, exact total unknown. Though he may be the most prolific serial killer of the 20th century, he was released in 1998. Current whereabouts unknown. |
| Daniel Barbosa | Colombia, Ecuador | 1974 to 1986 | 0072 !72 | 0150 !150 | Child-murderer, believed to have possibly raped and killed over 150 victims, primarily young virgin girls. Confessed to killing 72 victims and incarcerated with Pedro Alonso Lopez. Considered to be intelligent and believed to have been motivated to kill from his stepmother abusing him as a child. He strangled young girls in Colombia and was arrested, but he escaped from prison and he started killing in Ecuador; rearrested in 1989, he was killed in jail. |
| Pedro Rodrigues Filho | Brazil | 1967 to 2003 | 0071 !71 | 0100 !100+ | Convicted and sentenced to 128 years, but the maximum one can serve in Brazil is 30 years. He has claimed to have killed over 100 victims, 47 of them inmates. He also killed his father and ate a piece of his heart. He killed his first two victims at the age of 14; he was first arrested in 1973. |
| Gary Ridgway | United States | 1982 to 2000 | 71 | 71–90+ | Truck painter who confessed to killing 71 women. The United States' most prolific serial killer; also known as The Green River Killer. He almost exclusively targeted escorts from Seattle. Once there, he would proposition a prostitute, drive to the banks of the Green River, and strangle her to death. After murdering his victim he would dump her body near the nearby water. Suspected of killing over 90 victims, confessed to 71, convicted of 48. |
| Yang Xinhai | China | 2000 to 2003 | 67 | 67 | Would enter victims' homes at night and kill everyone with axes, meat cleavers, hammers, and shovels. Executed in February 2004. Known as the "Monster Killer". |
| Andrei Chikatilo | Soviet Union/ Ukraine | 1978 to 1990 | 53 | 56 | Known as Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper or The Rostov Ripper. Convicted of the murder of 53 women and children between 1978 and 1990. Executed in 1994. Three people were previously convicted and executed for his crimes. |
| Anatoly Onoprienko | Soviet Union/ Ukraine | 1989 to 1996 | 52 | 52+ | Known as "The Beast of Ukraine", "The Terminator" and "Citizen O". Convicted of the murders of 9 people in 1989 and 43 people in 1995–1996. Sentenced to death, later commuted to life. Traveled through Europe illegally from 1990 to 1995; whether he killed during this time is unknown. |
| Alexander Pichushkin | Russia | 1992 to 2006 | 48 | 61+ | Known as the Chessboard Killer. Convicted of murdering 48 victims and suspected of killing 61. Claimed to have murdered 63 people out of his goal of 64 to fill a chessboard; stated goal of becoming Russia's most prolific serial killer. |
| Ahmad Suradji | Indonesia | 1986 to 1997 | 42 | 70–80+ | Convicted of strangling at least 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers. Executed by firing squad on 11 July 2008. |
| Moses Sithole | South Africa | 1994 to 1995 | 38 | 38+ | Preyed on unemployed women, posing as a businessman and luring his victims with the prospects of a job, before leading them to an isolated place, where he raped, tortured, and murdered them. Sentenced to 2410 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 930 years. Known as South Africa's Ted Bundy. |
| Serhiy Tkach | Soviet Union/ Ukraine | 1984 to 2005 | 36 | 80–100 | A former Ukrainian police criminal investigator, suffocated girls aged between 8 and 18 and performed sexual acts on their bodies after they were dead. Claims to have killed 100. |
| Gennady Mikhasevich | Soviet Union/ Belarus | 1971 to 1985 | 36 | 38–43 | Strangled females. |
| Ted Bundy | United States | 1974 to 1978 | 35 | 36+ | America's first "post-modern" serial killer due to his charisma and good looks. Bundy officially confessed to 30 homicides, but has confessed to killing 35-36 women in the past, and some estimates run upwards of 100 or more. Infamous for escaping from prison twice and murdering multiple victims in one day; sometimes abducting women from the same location within hours of one another. He was executed in the electric chair in 1989. |
| John Wayne Gacy | United States | 1972 to 1978 | 33 | 34+ | Known to have murdered a minimum of 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978, 26 of whom he buried in the crawl space of his Chicago home. Gacy was known as the "Killer Clown" due to the fact he often entertained children at social events dressed in a self devised clown costume. Gacy was executed in 1994. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Serial Killers By Number Of Victims, Serial Killers
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